Chapter 22

Christmas eve was upon us before we knew it. I found myself surrounded by nothing but tape and wrapping paper. Soda had to work, so he got all his wrapping done early. Darry took Davanee with him to go Christmas shopping. It isn't like him to wait till the last minute but Darry had been working real hard lately so he didn't really have time to go shopping.

I was wrapping one of Davanee's presents when Johnny and Dally came over.

"You guys gonna be here tonight?" I asked.

"Yeah. We've got no where's else to go so why not?" said Johnny, "besides, I've got a Christmas present for Davanee."

"You do?" I asked.

"Yeah. It's not much but I think she'll like it."

"What is it?" I asked.

"Just a doll I saw it in one of the store windows down town. She might not be old enough for a doll yet but I figured she'd grow into it."

"I'm sure she'll like it. I mostly got her clothes. She needs clothes , especially winter stuff." I grabbed an armload of wrapped presents and set them under the tree, carefully that is. There where breakable, irreplaceable ornaments on that tree. Darry would be mad if I broke any of them. Most of them were ones that mom had collected. She loved to collect ornaments. She even let us pick out our favorites from her collection and then she would give them to us that Christmas. I had 2 ornaments. One of them she gave to me when I was four. It had a little boy, who was dressed up as a cowboy, and a pony.

The other one she gave to me on her last Christmas. It was an emerald green, glass star that had gold sparkles all over it. It meant more to me then the one with the kid and the pony.

I had gotten Davanee a couple of "baby's first Christmas" ornaments. I found this one that had a baby on it who had blonde curls and looked like she was laughing. It had a big pink D and baby's first Christmas on it. I just had to get it.

I stuffed the rest of the presents under the tree and waited for Darry, Davanee, Soda, and Anya to come home. While we where waiting for them to come home, I made sugar cookies. It was a tradition we had been doing for years. We would always make sugar cookies and decorate them the day before Christmas. Mom would also make sticky buns with nuts, but she always made sure there were a few without nuts because I didn't like nuts in mine. But since she never taught any of us how to make them, that tradition stopped when they died. I had tried a couple of times before but they just weren't the same. They always came out burnt.

We waited for what seemed like forever until Darry and Davanee finally came home.

"How was it?" I asked.

"It was fine. She was good" said Darry.

"What'd you get?"

"Now, you know I can't tell you that. You wouldn't want to spoil the surprise, would you?"

"Fine" I said, taking Davanee out of the stroller. I hadn't seen her almost all day.

"Come on" I said to Davanee, "you can help me decorate the cookies."

"If she can't even eat cookies yet, how is she going to help you?" asked Darry.

"I dunno." I put Davanee in her high chair and went to work on the cookies. Mom use to always let me decorate the cookies when I was little.

Once we where done with the cookies, I set them aside and out of reach. If Two-Bit and Soda found the cookies, we wouldn't have any left over for Christmas.

About an hour later, Soda and Steve came home, along with Anya. Anya had been out doing some last minute Christmas shopping.

It was a different Christmas eve for us that year. We had two new people at the table. Well, one wasn't really at the table. She was sitting in her high chair, but that was close enough. All she had for dinner was a bottle and carrots, which weren't really carrots. They where baby food carrots.

Once we were done with dinner, everybody went into the living room while I got Davanee ready for bed. When I was looking for her Christmas pajamas that Mrs. Mathews had gotten her, I noticed a book on the bookshelf Soda and Darry had put in her room. It was How the Grinch Stole Christmas. I remember the many Christmas's my parents had read that story to me. Maybe it was time to start that tradition again.

I brought Davanee and the book out the living room.

"What's that?" asked Darry.

"The grinch. I figured Davanee might like it."

"It's been a long time since we've heard that story" said Soda.

"Read it to us" said Darry.
"What?" I asked. I was a bit surprised that he would say that. I thought that maybe me reading the book might remind Soda and Darry of mom and dad. I didn't want to ruin their holiday by making them said.

"Read it to us" repeated Darry.

"You sure?" I asked.

"Of course."

I smiled a bit while I put Davanee down. I pulled the rocking chair out of the nursery. I rocked Davanee and read to the gang at the same time. The book didn't take very long to read. I've you've ever read the book, you'll know it's just a couple of pages. But Davanee was asleep by the time I finished.

I set her down in her crib and gave her a kiss good night. Darry put the rocking chair back in the nursery for me.

About an hour and a Christmas special later, everybody had gone home except for Johnny and Dallas. They all said they would be back over early in the morning. Then Soda went to bed. He said that if he didn't get to bed soon, Santa wouldn't come. He was 16 and he still believed in Santa (no offence to those of you that do).

"You know, you better get to sleep too" said Darry.

"I know but I'm not tired. I'm too excited to be tired" I said.

"About what you're gonna get tomorrow?"

"Well, that and it being Davanee's first Christmas."

"I can't believe it's her first Christmas" said Darry.

"Neither can I" I said, "ya know, last year I never would've guessed that I would have a kid this year. I just thought it was gonna be normal but I think it turned out better then what I had expected."

"If you had a second chance, would you change it?" asked Darry.

"You mean, would I not go to that party?"

"Yeah."

"I don't know really. I think since she's come everything's gotten better for me at least. I don't think I would change anything" I replied honestly. I was actually happy with my life for once.

"That's good" said Darry.

"What about you?" I asked.

"What do ya mean?"

"I mean, if you could go back and put us in a boys home, would you?"

"No. I couldn't do that to you. What kind of brother would I be if I did that to you and Soda? Besides, you'd probably never forgive me if I did" said Darry.

"Things would be different if you had" I said. I hadn't thought about it before but things really would be different if he had put us in a boys home somewhere. I would be separated from my brothers. I could never be separated from my brothers, even if I do think Darry doesn't love me sometimes.

"I think I'm gonna try to go to bed now" I said, getting up.

"Alright. 'Night" said Darry.

"'Night" I said.

I found it hard to sleep that night. I was too excited. I always found it hard to sleep on Christmas eve but I eventually fell asleep. When I woke up the next morning, it was very quiet. For some reason, it was always quiet on Christmas morning at our house. Normally there would be somebody in the kitchen or the tv would be turned up really loud or something. But there was nothing this morning. I got out of bed and tiptoed down the hall to the nursery. Davanee was still asleep.

So I went to Darry's room to wake him up. At first he wouldn't get up but when he finally realized that I wouldn't leave him alone until he did, he started getting up. Then I went in to wake up Soda but he was already up. Christmas and his birthday were the only two days where he really wanted to get up out of bed.

"Should we have breakfast first?" asked Darry.

"Yeah. Let me get Davanee" I said, heading back to the nursery. I got Davanee up and changed her diaper before we went out to the kitchen. When we did come out, Darry was almost done with making breakfast. I had eggs while Davanee had a bottle. She could hold her bottle by then but she did drop it a lot. When we where done with breakfast, she had dropped her bottle 10 times.

We put the dishes in the sink and made our way to the living room. I think Soda was more excited then any of us. Davanee probably would have been excited had she known what was going on. I didn't really get a chance to open a lot of my presents right away. I opened Davanee's presents for her. She seemed happy with what she got. It was mostly clothes but there where a couple of toys. Soda gave her a brown stuffed horse (as in stuffed animal). Darry got her a pink shirt that had teddy bears on it, along with a pair of jeans. I just got her a bunch of clothes and a couple of new toys.

Once I was done with all of Davanee's presents, I moved on to my own. I didn't get much that year. Just clothes and books really, which is ok because that's all I really wanted.

"I got presents for y'all" I said, looking under the tree for the presents.

"When did you have time to go Christmas shopping?" asked Soda.

"When I wasn't at school" I replied, handing Soda his present. I gave Darry and Anya there presents. They all opened them at once.

"Where did you get the money?" asked Darry, looking at his new jacket.

"From you" I replied, "all this stuff was on sale."

Everybody seemed to like there presents from me, especially Anya.

About an hour later, after every present under the tree had been opened, the gang came over with more presents.

We opened the ones from Two-Bit first.

He gave Davanee a pair of blue converse.

"Her first pair of greasy shoes" said Two-Bit.

"I'm so proud" I added, sarcastically of course.

"What all did she get for Christmas?" asked Two-Bit.

"Just a bunch of toys and clothes. Nothing real big" I said. We would've gotten her something real big had we had the money.

The rest of the day went by pretty slowly, which is good because I hate it when holidays go by too fast. We took a bunch of pictures of Davanee in a Christmas dress that Mrs. Mathews had given us. She gave us a lot of baby clothes. Once we were done with all the picture taking and opening the presents, we had dinner. It was anything too special but it was nice.

After dinner, Darry made a bonfire in the back yard. Dad use to do that for us on thanksgiving and Christmas. It was practically tradition. Everybody went to go sit by the fire while I dressed Davanee. It was cold outside and I didn't want her to get sick again. Once I was done getting her dressed, we joined everybody else outside.

I sat next to Anya. She looked nice in her new pink sweat shirt.

"How did you know this is what I wanted? I never told anybody what I wanted for Christmas" said Anya.

"I kinda figured you needed one. Your old one was looking pretty bad" I said.

"So are you saying that I looked bad before?" asked Anya.

"No, no. That's not what I meant. What I meant was your sweat shirt looked bad."

"I knew what you meant. I was just giving you a hard time" said Anya, smiling.

"So, have you talked to your parents lately?" I asked.

"No, not really. I mean, I have talked to them but I haven't talked to them about moving if that's what you mean" said Anya.

"Well, I kinda came up with an idea. I've already talked to Darry about it and he said it was ok."

"What is it?" asked Anya.

"Well, I was wondering if you'd like to come live with us instead" I said.

"Seriously?" asked Anya.

"Seriously. I mean, you'd have to talk about it with your parents."

"Will you come with me?" asked Anya, "I don't think I can do that alone."

"Of course."

"I talked to Stephen" said Anya, looking at the fire, "the state is gonna take Hailey away. She gonna live with his parents."

"That's good" I said, "that's really good."