It was Christmas Eve and Amelia could hardly wait for dinnertime to come. Every year they had a big nice family dinner where Arthur and Francis would spend most of the day cooking, of course the girls would help out, then they went over to Maddie's house and Ame would sleep over and they'd open presents in the morning.

Amelia had gone out of her way to try to be nice to Julchen and just figured she'd suck it up and do what their "guest" wanted. But not tonight. Tonight she wasn't going to let anything get in the way of their annual traditions and Christmas. Everything went as planned and they all helped pitch in and cook all the food. They joked and teased, made a mess then all helped clean up. The whole day actually seemed to pass by without any problems whatsoever. At least not until they actually sat down to dinner.

They had the usual pleasant conversation, talking about this and that, what their resolutions for the new year were going to be, what some of their best accomplishments of the year had been, and the like. As soon as the subject of school was brought up, it was a different matter entirely.

"What classes are you taking next semester?" Arthur asked this as he took another sip of wine. Amelia felt her grip on her fork tighten. She'd checked her grades the other night and it was not pretty. In fact, she was going to have to repeat one of her courses. She let Madeline answer first then merely shrugged the question off.

"I haven't decided yet. I gotta look at that stuff this week." She quickly stuffed more food into her mouth. Arthur seemed dissatisfied with her answer but didn't press the issue. Francis dabbed at his mouth with a napkin and spoke up.

"Was this last semester difficult? How did you do in your classes?" From the look on Arthur's face, he seemed to expect an answer from Amelia as well. Madeline smiled and pushed her food around on her plate as she answered her father.

"I did well. I passed with four A's and two B's. I liked most of my teachers but it was a lot of work." Francis nodded and smiled, the pride all too evident on his face. Amelia could feel her father's eyes on her, waiting for an answer. Beneath the table, Amelia could feel Madeline's hand place itself reassuringly on her thigh. Maddie knew that Ame was struggling with her classes.

"Psh, I mean I didn't straight A's or anything, but I did fine." Amelia shrugged again. "But nothing I couldn't handle or anything." Once again, Arthur seemed pacified for the time being. At least he did until Julchen spoke up.

"Fine? Dude, you hardly showed up to our class. People would stare at you when you fell asleep."

Amelia felt her blood run cold and her heart stop completely. Both her and Madeline staring at Julchen in shock, the albino girl seemingly oblivious to what she'd just caused. Julchen quickly realized her mistake when she saw Arthur's face, muttering a quiet, "oh…"

"Hardly showed up to class? Falling asleep during lectures?" Arthur set his fork down, eyes boring into Amelia as she sank down in her seat and averted his gaze. The tension in the room was thick, almost tangible.

Francis cleared his throat and stood up, picking up his plate with him. "It's the holidays. And it was a fantastic dinner. Come on, old man, let the girls be. It's getting late for us seniors, why don't we just clean up and let them enjoy the rest of the evening?"

Everyone moved to clean up after themselves and put away the leftovers. Madeline gave Amelia's thigh another supportive squeeze before she stood up to help with the dishes. As they finished cleaning up and straightening up the dining room, Julchen, Madeline, and Amelia all moved to leave and head over to Francis's house for the sleepover.

"Amelia." Arthur's voice stopped her in her tracks. "Hold on a moment. I'd like to have a word with you before you go."

Maddie had trouble hiding her concern, lingering in the doorway for a moment. Julchen stood by Maddie awkwardly, feeling bad for unintentionally putting Amelia on the hot seat.

"You guys go ahead. I'll be over in a bit." Ame tried to play it off cool. She didn't want them to worry or feel bad for her. Maddie simply nodded and pulled Julchen along and the two headed off next door. Amelia was left alone with her father now.

"You're going to get on the computer and pull up your grades for me to see right now."

"But dad-"

"Now."

The following conversation was not a pleasant one. Nearly an hour passed by of Arthur just yelling and lecturing her nonstop. It was full of "I'm not paying large amounts of money each semester for you to goof off" and "You're an adult now, you need to start acting like one." Somewhere after the whole being-disappointed-and-she-should-be-ashamed-for-slacking-and-not-doing-her-best spiel, she began to tune him out. Perhaps not so much tune him out as it was actually a numbness that started in her chest and spread throughout her body.

"Honestly, sometimes I envy Francis. He's never had these kinds of problems with Madeline. For as much time you two spend together, I sometimes wish she'd rub off on you and that you would learn a thing or two from her." Amelia winced at this. Fighting back the stinging feeling in her eyes, she bit down on her tongue to keep from letting them overflow. She didn't say a word the entire time. After scolding her for what felt like hours, Arthur finally ran out of flaws to point out and different ways for saying how much of a screw up she was. He finally gave up on lecturing her and went to bed.

Amelia got up and trudged out the door, her feet feeling about ten times heavier than normal as she pushed through the snow across her yard then across Maddie's yard and walked up to their door. It was unlocked, since they were expecting her, and she walked in, shutting it quietly behind her because Francis had already gone to bed by now. She slipped her shoes off and crept up the stairs, wiping her eyes dry with her sleeves and trying to make herself look presentable for her friends. She stopped outside Madeline's door when she heard their voices coming from inside the room.

"Shut up, like you're any better." The sound of Julchen's voice just sent a pang of sharp pain and irritation through her.

"Yeah, but it'd be expected of me. You, on the other hand, I'm surprised at." Maddie's voice seemed to sooth Amelia, helping calm her and heal the wounds.

"Whatever. So… are you gonna answer the question? Anyone you like or have your eye on?" There was a teasing tone in Julchen's voice and Amelia immediately tensed up. She held her breath as she stood outside the door, trying to listen in on the conversation.

"Well…" Madeline began, her soft voice becoming bashful and meek. "I mean, sort of. But it's weird."

"Weird how?"

"It's just- stop moving around so much. You were complaining about me pulling your hair but it wouldn't hurt if you'd just sit still."

"Fine fine. Just answer."

"I mean I like them, but it's just a little complicated. That's all. Jeez, you're hair is so long." Amelia could tell that Maddie was trying to change the subject.

"Well so is yours."

"Yeah, but mine is so curly. Yours is long and straight and just so pretty. I like braiding it."

Amelia frowned and reached a hand up to her own hair. It was frizzy and short. She'd always been a bit of a tomboy and preferred her hair cut short and out of the way. She liked it this way, so she couldn't for the life of her figure out why she suddenly felt so self conscious about it.

"Amelia?" She jumped at the sound of her name.

"Huh?" Madeline seemed just as caught off.

"Is that who you like?"

She held her breath.

Madeline let out a laugh. "She's like my sister."

"I guess. Got any sodas left?"

"Yeah, hold on. They're downstairs."

Amelia quickly and quietly ducked out of the hallway and into the bathroom, hiding in the darkness and waiting for Maddie to head downstairs. She wasn't ready to join the sleepover yet. She had to dry her eyes again.