December 24 2014, Wednesday
10:31 PM.
Some seconds after the closing credits for the Christmas special of All Grown Up!, Phoebe was still seated on the couch. Her parents and siblings went to their rooms some time after the dinner ended, but she wanted to stay and watch some T.V. before going to sleep. That's how she found the special of one of her favorite shows of her childhood. In an instant, she remembered when she was a little girl and used to spend her afternoons watching to this cartoon with her brother Max.
Back then, Billy and Nora hasn't even born yet, so beside their parents, they only had each other. Definitely, the twins were very close in the past.
Phoebe smiles with this memory and without further delay, she turns off the T.V. and stood up, leaving the remote on the couch. She sees the screen of her phone for a second and realizes that it's past 10, so she decides it's time to sleep. Decorating Max's lair was not the only thing she did, she did lots of other things during the day and now she's very tired, so after moving the switch with her telekinesis, the lights of the living room went off, leaving her in a complete darkness.
And then she walks to her room very carefully, lighting her path using the flash of her cell phone. The whole house was so quiet, and as she walks through the hallway that separates her room from her parent's, she could only hear the soft sound of her boots with every step she takes. When she finally gets to her room, she slowly opens the door and walks inside without making any noise. She didn't want to wake them up.
10:43 PM.
Inside of her room, it seemed like it was even darker than in the outside. She walks to her night table and lights up her lamp, and right after, her room was illuminated with a warm light, enough to stop using her phone. The light of her lamp was very soft but it was all she needed to change her clothes. She set aside her cute attire of a white sweater with black lines and blue jeans, and then she put on her pajamas, which consisted of a red sweater, and green sweatpants with some Santa Claus printed on them. A gift Barb gave her last year.
Once she was ready and all sleepy, Phoebe lied down on her bed and used a couple sheets to cover up herself. Then, she extended her arm to put her cell phone on her night table and turned off the lamp, letting the darkness cover her room again. Outside of the house, it was getting very cold, so she took her favorite pillow and cuddled to it, trying to get some warm from it and have a better sleep for the night.
But a couple seconds later, something made her concentrate her look on the window next her bed. She unconsciously let out her pillow, and got astonished with what she just saw outside. Up in the sky, she could see a big full moon.
"Wow! It looks beautiful!" Phoebe whispered, watching the moon very carefully.
She cuddled to her pillow again and kept watching at the astronomical event. This night the sky was all clear and there were just a few stars up there, so watching the moon in the middle of the night was very easy at this point. She stays like that for some minutes, just watching at the moon and smiling in silence, stunned by its magnificent. But without her knowing, Max suddenly returned to her thoughts.
She asked herself how it was possible for him to still sticking to his villain phase. She always thought that Max has a good heart, and he just needs people to get close to him in order to understand him. She never believed he could become a cruel super villain. She always has supported him no matter how many times he has disappointed her, but sometimes Phoebe had her doubts, she didn't know if it was enough for him.
In front of the others, she pretends she likes to fight him, but she would never confess it's actually scary for her to think that Max can become a dangerous villain she'll have to stop in the future. She even had nightmares about it, and the most awful are the ones where Max turns against her and joins to other villains to fight her and her family. Sometimes, she used to wake up very startled, and with her eyes full with tears.
Phoebe turns to her left and stopped watching at the moon. She then wished with all her strengths that this day never come. She would be so broken if her own twin betrays her and turn his back on her, because that day her worst nightmare would become true. But Phoebe tried to stop thinking about it, and preferred to imagine what he would be like if he accepted his life as a hero, and join to her to fighting crime. Without of a doubt, nothing would make her so happy than fight next to him, both with their capes and with their powers fully developed. She could almost see it.
And as she cuddles to her pillow even more, with this small illusion playing inside of her mind, a beautiful smile was drawn on her face, as she thinks:
"If you only were different..."
And then, she slowly closes her eyes, falling into a deep sleep. Some seconds later, a shooting star was visible through her window, until it got lost in the middle of the sky.
December 25 2014, Thursday
07:15 AM
In the morning, Phoebe was still sleeping silently in her room. She looked so calmed that she seemed to have a small sign of the smile she slept with last night. But all of a sudden, her sleep was interrupted when she heard some noises at the distance. She took a couple seconds to be awake completely and realize that these noises were not part of a dream and they were real, so when she seated on her bed, she put more attention to these sounds and she could hear something that sounded like jingle bells.
She stood up from her bed really quick, put on her green boots and walks out her room to find out where this jingle bells were coming from. When she got out of there, she sees Hank and Barb walking out of their room. She was supposing all the noise has wake them up, but unlike her, her parents were not looking worried or nervous for what was happening. Actually they were very happy.
"What is this? Who's making all those noises?" She asks Barb, unknown of the situation.
"Who do you think?" She replies smiling.
"Come on Phoebe, run." Hank adds, taking Barb's hand.
They keep walking through the hallway and Phoebe was left alone, with an awkward expression. Soon after, Billy and Nora walked out their rooms to join them. She notices they were all happy, just like their parents, and at the distance she could only hear Billy saying:
"Run Phoebe! You're losing the figgy pudding!"
"Figgy pudding? I didn't made figgy pudding." Phoebe thought, a little confused.
After that, she continued walking and finally arrives to the stairs. And as she walks down, she got shocked with what she saw there.
"Get down here sleepyheads! It's Christmas!" Max exclaims all encouraging and right after, he hugs Billy and Nora.
Max Thunderman was next to the Christmas tree, dressed with a green suit and shaking some jingle bells as hard as he could.
"Merry Christmas my beautiful family!" He says to everyone, non stop smiling.
And then he set aside the jingle bells and takes a dish with something on it.
"Guess who made figgy pudding?" He asks them, after tasting it with his finger.
"I want some pudding!" Billy says, almost yelling of excitement.
Now, everyone was in the living room waiting for Phoebe, and after walked down the stairs, she put her eyes on Max's, and her expression could not reflect more than confusion, after seeing what she had in front of her. Especially when Max smiled at her, and extended his arms saying:
"Merry Christmas Pheebs!"
She was still very confused, she didn't understand why was Max acting like this. She was unsure if she had to get closer and give him a hug, or keep her distance because she genuinely thought he was plotting a prank. She doubts for some seconds ant they felt like infinite for her. But then, Max centers his attention on her face and asks her:
"What's wrong Pheebs? Don't you have a hug for your twin?"
And after hearing his question, Phoebe walks to him very slowly, and gives him a hug. But being with him like this, Phoebe was feeling something unknown for her. She didn't remember the last time she was this close to Max, with her arms around his neck. Normally after a hug, he would put some distance between them, pull off her hair annoyingly, or he would play a cruel prank on her, but not this time. This time, it was a warm twin hug.
Phoebe couldn't help but feel a little awkward while hugging him, but as she felt his arms around her waist, little by little, all of her worries were vanishing, and now she was feeling more comfortable with him. However, since the minute she got close to him, the rush of her heartbeats hasn't decrease yet, not even a little.
"Merry Christmas, Max" Phoebes says, very happy.
She didn't know how much time did their hug last, but when they were finally separated, something inside her was questioning if she was seeing something more, maybe a well planned prank of him. It was impossible for him to wake up so early just to make some figgy pudding and say merry Christmas to the family, or even hugging her without Barb asking him first.
"What are you guys waiting for? Let's open our gifts!" Max says as he takes some of the boxes from the Christmas tree, giving out the presents.
Phoebe was still in shock, one week ago he told her that he will fight Christmas as long as he lived, and now he was in front of them, giving out their presents, and dressed as one of Santa's elves, and the weirdest part is that she seemed to be the only one to notice something was wrong with Max, the rest of them was acting like nothing was happening.
Now everybody was opening the gifts, very excited, but Phoebe stayed with her present on her knees. Her eyes could hardly believe what they were witnessing, and no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't stop watching him. He didn't realize it because he's concentrated with the presents of the family. Barb couldn't be happier with the blue scarf Nora gave her, Hank loved the wallet Phoebe brought for him, Billy could not stop smiling after seeing the videogame he gave to himself, and Max draw a big smile on his face when he found out that Barb gave him a black beanie hat.
"Thanks mom." Max says to Barb, after seeing the gift.
"Oh, you welcome sweetie." She replies.
All this time, Phoebe was looking at Max's reactions every time they opened a present, and she couldn't believe it. But after seeing how happy he was when he opened his gift, that was what surprised her the most. She was so shocked that it was very hard for her to hide all the doubts that were crossing through her mind, and her face was betraying her. Suddenly, she hears the voice of her twin, breaking out her thoughts:
"Phoebe, why don't you open your gift? Are you okay?" Max asks her as he gets close to her, and after that, he puts his right hand on her forehead, fearing she could have fever.
The mere contact of his hand with her face was making her heart rush again, like it did some time ago. Max has never shown this worrying attitude before, and that made her nervous.
"Yeah... yeah I'm fine..." She replies, trying to focus on what she was saying.
Soon after, Phoebe proceeded to open her gift, and once she exposed the content of that cute silver box, she took a pair of pointe shoes, her dad's present. That made her really happy because after a whole year practicing at her ballet class, she already needed a new pair. There's no doubt she would give them the proper use.
The only one left was Nora, so after Phoebe thanked Hank for his present, she begins to open her gift. Fearing the worst, Phoebe was looking at her little sister a little worried, because she didn't forget the threat that Max gave her one week ago. But all of her worries disappeared when she sees the content of that beautiful Christmas box. The little girl takes out a cushion with the form of a bow.
"Thanks Max!" The girl exclaims, just before running to him to give her brother a hug.
"You welcome Nora. But now, why don't we go outside to make some snowmen?" Max says, with encouragement.
"Snowmen? But there's no..." Nora tries to say.
And then, everyone turned to the side door of the house, just to see that it was snowing, which took them by surprise, and without double thinking, they stand up and run to the garden to play with the snow together. They all left the house, except for the twins.
"Am I dreaming?" Phoebe thought, while seeing her family playing at the garden.
That would be the only explanation, but after seeing how happy they were, Phoebe left her doubts and concerns behind and tried not think about it. She still not knows the reason of Max's sudden change. She didn't have any idea if this was part of a Christmas miracle and Max finally decided to show the good heart she always knew he had, or maybe everything was just a dream. Actually she doesn't care anymore; she loves this new Max Thunderman.
That's was she was thinking because all of a sudden, someone takes her hand and made her feel like the time has stopped.
"Are you coming Pheebs?" Max asks her, as he gives her the best of his smiles.
"Yes." She replies, getting a little flush for the sudden action of her brother.
Some moments later, everyone was at the garden, playing with the snow together like there's no tomorrow. They did everything, they built two big snowmen with the help of Hank and Barb, the kids made some snow angels on the floor, and they even joined to a little war of snowballs, with telekinesis and everything, but it ended with two Mrs. Wong's garden gnomes broken.
"Don't worry Mrs. Wong, I'll pay for them." Max assures her, from the wall of their garden.
Phoebe was stunned after hearing her brother's words, she even pinched on her arm a couple times, just to see if she was dreaming, but everything seemed to be real. Without of a doubt, she could get used to this.
To be continued...
