Hello peoples! I hope you'll enjoy this chappie. Please review when you're done! Enjoy. Oh, and just for the record, I don't own any of the decorations you'll read about in this chapter. I wish I did though. Have you ever seen the big houses at Oxnard when they're all decorated? It's really beautiful. Well, anyway, enjoy the chapter!
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"Wow! This looks amazing!" Nudge exclaimed, walking next to Kat, who just smiled and eyed the tall, over-decorated houses.
"Hey look!" Gasman said, pointing at one house that had 'The Peanuts Gang' decorations all around it. There was one cardboard decoration that had Charlie Brown smiling and waving, Lucy going ice-fishing, Peppermint Patty and Marcy making a snowman, and Sally sitting down and eating a candy cane.
Mini laughed and pointed at the decoration at the top. "Look at Snoopy and Woodstalk."
We all looked up and saw Snoopy dressed as Santa Claus, with a couple of reindeer tied to the sled. And guess who Mr. Rudolf was. Yup, Woodstalk with a glowing red light on his nose.
"This place is so cool!" Gasman said, looking around the street.
Iggy groaned. "Man, I wish I could see. It's no fun having people tell you how cool the houses look."
Conner gave Iggy a pat on the back and made a few hand signs on Iggy's left hand, which made Iggy smile for minute.
"Thank, Conner," he said. Conner smiled and brought Iggy's fingers to his lips to let him know.
Poor Iggy. I felt really bad for him. He was really missing out. There were so many houses that were completely decorated and very beautiful. Some had fake snow on their lawns. Some had inflatable snowmen. Some had cardboard angels blowing trumpets in a circle. Some had lights around their trees planted in the front yard. Some had cartoon characters dressed in Christmas outfits like "Charlie Brown", "Winnie the Pooh", and even—get this, "Pokémon". Others had giant statue toy soldiers. A marry-go-round with Santa and a couple of reindeer. Christmas carolers singing on their front porch. Giant, plastic statues of Santa Claus. Roofs that were decorated diagonally in Christmas lights. And even signs that said stuff like "Happy Holidays" or "Merry Christmas" or, this one I thought was cute, "Reindeer Crossing", which was a sign that Santa was holding in front of his slay and reindeer.
"Hey look! This house is giving out cookies!" Nudge yelled, already running to the house that was across the street from us with Kat following her.
"Kat! Nudge! Don't cross the street without us!" Miles yelled, running after them. "Max, help me out here," he said, looking at me.
"Did they say cookies?" I asked, looking at the house Nudge and Kat were already at and saw a woman handing out cookies.
"Cookies!" I screamed, running past Miles, who watched me run past him with a blank look on his face.
He turned towards Iggy. "Is she always like this?" he asked.
Iggy shrugged his shoulders. "If cookies are involved in any way, pretty much."
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I ran up to the house that was probably the coolest we've ever seen today. There was fake, fluffy, glittery snow all around the lawn and three, giant nutcrackers carrying toy guns in their hands on the right side of the lawn, along with a giant snow globe with a snowman in it and a machine that was spewing little flakes of snow. There was also a toy train that was riding around a pile of Christmas caroler statues and a big, decorated Christmas tree right next to the train tracks.
On the other side of the lawn, were a few plastic statues of camels and the Three Wise Men. Next to them, were plastic figures of Mary and Joseph, looking down at Baby Jesus in his little bed of hay with a few animals surrounding him like a baby sheep, a goat, and a few doves that were standing on top of the bed.
"Max! You gotta come try these cookies!" Nudge yelled when she saw me and the rest of the gang crossing the street and walking up to the house in front of us.
I looked over at the woman that was passing out the cookie and gave her a smile. The cookies she was passing out smelled so well and I wanted to sink my teeth into one so badly, but I had to be polite. Curse you manners!
"I'm terribly sorry ma'am. I hope these two weren't bothering you."
The woman laughed making her dark brown eyes sparkle. "It's no trouble. I have a lot of little kids come running to my house before their parents even know they ran off. It's because of the cookies that I pass out, which your little friends seem to really like."
I looked down at Nudge and Kat, who were finishing up their cookies and drinking the rest of the milk in their cartons. Wow. This lady was passing out milk too.
"Please, ma'am. Can we have some more?" Kat asked. Wow, since when was little miss cranky tomboy so good with manners?
"Kat, that's enough cookies," Miles told her, already walking up the porch.
"Oh, no. It's no trouble at all," the young woman told him. She then turned to the front door and called out, "Jesse, dear! Can you and Michael bring over more cookies?"
"Okay, Mom!" a teenaged girl called out, walking towards the front door with a bag of cookies in her hand and a four-year-old boy following her from behind, also with a bag of cookies in his hand. They both handed them to their mother.
"Thank you," she said, giving her kids a smile. "You're all welcome to help yourselves. We've got plenty."
"Thank you, ma'am," I thanked, giving her a small bow and then nodding to the rest of the gang. They all smiled and rushed to the woman, helping themselves to cookies and small cartons of milk. I helped myself also and quickly grabbed a cookie. It smelled nice and hot. Probably fresh from out of the oven.
After taking a good, long whiff, I took a big bite out the cookie and started savoring the taste. YUM! This cookie was awesome! The chocolate chips were melted to the perfect point and the dough was not too chewing, yet not too crunchy. Although, there seemed to be a small lack of sugar. But other than that, this cookie rocked my taste buds! My search continues, but I'd give this cookie an 8.5.
"Mom, Michael was giving King Cookie dough again, so now there's dog puke all over the kitchen floor," the teenaged girl replied. She had her hair in a few pink hair curlers and was wearing a dark blue bathrobe. She must've been getting ready for bed.
"Honey, can we worry about that later? We have guest," her mother told her. The teenaged girl looked over at us until eating up the cookies that were passed out.
"You're mom makes awesome cookies," Miles told her.
"Mmhmm," Fang nodded in agreement.
"She has to give me the recipe," Iggy said, finishing up his third cookie.
The teenaged girl looked up at us and was blushing madly, her hand rubbing behind her neck nervously. "I'm very sorry," she said to Miles, Fang, and Iggy. "I don't always look like this. I mean. I was just getting ready for bed. Not that I wear this when I go to bed. I just thought I'd see how my hair would look when its curled. And I don't wear a bathrobe to bed. I wear normal pajamas like everyone else. Really."
Miles cracked a small smile and finished up his cookie. "It's cool. Don't worry about it. Besides, I'll bet you'll look really nice when those curlers have done their job. Call me a sucker for women with curly hair."
The teenaged girl smiled from ear to ear and was blushing so much it looked like she was having a heatstroke.
"T-thank you," she said while Miles gave her a smile and a wink which gave me a weird feeling in the pit of my stomach.
Do I detect a hint of jealousy?
Shut up! I'm not jealous about Miles being all nice to that girl.
Sure you aren't.
"Jesse, dear, why don't you go upstairs and change into some clothes. We have male guest here and I don't think they want to see a young lady in just a bathrobe," her mother told her. Miles, Fang, and Iggy all cracked a smile as if the woman were joking. Those sick perv's.
Jesse glared at her mother for a while but then looked back up Miles, Fang, and Iggy. "I'll be right back. Nice meeting you three."
"Nice meeting you," Iggy said, getting another cookie.
"Ditto," Fang said, swallowing the bit of cookie that was in his mouth and giving her a small smile.
Great. Not Fang too.
Oh, so you still have the hots for Fang? Knew it.
Shut up!
Jesse smiled and quickly ran up stairs.
"Sorry about that," the woman apologized.
"It's okay," I told her.
"My sister's really weird," the little boy told us. I gave him a smile. The woman smiled and chuckled a little also. She was a very nice and young woman. She looked to be about in her early thirties. She had gorgeous brown hair that had dark brown streaks in it and went down to her shoulders and sparkling dark brown eyes that seem to twinkle even more when she laughed or smiled. Her skin was fair and a little tan, showing that she was Mexican. She was a little chubby, but not too much and sort of short. About 5'4 or so, but this is coming from a fourteen-year-old who's around 5'10. She was wearing a light pink sweater that was great to wear during this time of year and white pants with black boots making her about an inch higher.
"Hi! I'm back," Jesse said, running back up to the front door. Well, without the bathrobe and hair curlers, she looked really nice. A lot like her mom, only you can tell her hair was a lot more straighter and longer but thanks to the curlers, it was now a little curly. She had her sparkling eyes and her tanish skin, only hers wasn't as tan as her mothers'. She was very skinny and looked to be around the same age as Miles, Fang, Iggy, and I. She was wearing a very nice, brown shirt and khaki capris (sorry, can't spell) that had laces at the bottom that were tied in a bow, and almost new black and grey Sketchers. She was also wearing make-up, which was obvious so Miles, Fang, and Iggy would notice her a little more. A little bit of pink lip-gloss that made her lips shimmer and a small dose of eye shadow.
"Wow, you got dressed fast!" the little boy exclaimed. The little boy also looked a lot like his mother, but had a little bit of traits that were probably from his dad like his eye color, which was sort of a hazel color and didn't really when he smiled or laughed and just plain, dark brown hair that almost looked black. He was wearing a red and blue T-Shirt with a Hot Wheels race car on it that said 'BEAT THAT!' in yellow letters and plain jeans with black and white Hot Wheels sneakers.
"These cookies are really great, ma'am," Iggy said to the woman.
She smiled. "Why thank you. Oh, I'm sorry. Where are my manners. My name is Jane Parker and these are my kids Jesse," she motioned to the teenaged girl who waved and smiled, but only at the boys. "and Michael." The little boy also waved and smiled.
"Nice to meet you," I said. "My name is Max Ride and these are my brothers and sisters."
"All of them?" Jane asked in shock.
"Oh, no," Miles quickly said. "These four are my brothers and sisters. Max and her fl—I mean gang are our cousins."
Jane nodded.
"Um, so, what's your name?" Jesse asked, batting her eyelashes at Miles. I rolled my eyes.
"I'm Miles Ride," he told her. "And these are my bros and sis'. C-alvin," he pointing at Conner. "Kat-ie," he pointed at Kat. "Da-niel," he pointed at Dash. "And Mi-chelle," he finished off at Mini.
I looked at him as if he just told a bad joke and whispered in his ear. "You're horrible with names."
He just gave me a shrug.
"And what are your brothers and sisters names?" Jane asked, looking at me.
"Oh." I turned towards my flock, starting off with the oldest to the youngest. "This is Nick, then there's Jeff, Tiffany-Krystal, Zephyr, and Ariel."
Jane smiled. "Well it's very nice to meet all of you."
"I'll say," Jesse whispered to herself, drooling over Miles, Fang, and Iggy. Boy, this girl was head-over-heals with those boys.
"Max," Angel said groggily.
I looked over at her and saw that she looked kind of dizzy and her face was extremely pale. "What's the matter An—I mean Ariel?"
Her cheeks puffed up but then went back to normal after she swallowed whatever it was in there down. "I don't feel so good."
I walked towards her and put my hand on her forehead. She was really burning up and so were her cheeks. "Ariel. I think you're coming down with something."
Just then, without warning, Angel made a horrible gagging noise and threw up right on my shirt, chunks of cookies soaked with milk and other stuff I wasn't familiar with and really didn't want to find out spewing out of her mouth.
Looks like Angel gave you her Christmas present a little early.
I looked down at my shirt and then looked at Angel, who looked like she was about to pass out, but instead, threw up more chunks of food that's been in her stomach for the past day.
Is there anyway I can return it? I asked, pulling her hair back so that none of the barf would get in her hair as she puked even more. (Sigh) The joy of having kids.
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Bleck. Maybe it wasn't such a good idea writing this chappie while eating. Oh well. Live and learn. I hope you liked this chapter and are ready for the next one. Maximum Ride rules! and peace out!