Author's Note: First of all, it's hard to believe that as of today, December 3, 2015, I've been on Fan Fiction for a year and a half. My how time flies! And I'm gonna see if I possibly can pull it off, to have 140 stories completed on my profile come Christmas day. As you can probably guess at the time I am getting this chapter posted, I did indeed, have school today, amongst other things that were going on. And after finding out the unpleasant news that I'll have to go to school on my birthday, it's sort of, left me in kind of a bitter mood the rest of the day. Here's hoping writing this chapter, will help me to feel better. Without further a due, let's get on with it.
Chapter 3, Small Things and Sick Souls
Zack was sitting on the living room floor of his apartment, watching the complete series of Super Why on DVD, that his aunt had given him as an early Christmas present earlier that day, as it was Christmas eve once again. In the distance though, he could hear his poor aunt Celeste, coughing and sneezing, as she lay in bed in her room down the hall, trying to recover from the Flu. This in turn, resulted in them having to miss the Christmas party again, and sadly, because anybody can catch Influenza, they wouldn't be able to go this year. While Zack was enjoying his private Super Why marathon, he was kind of down about having to skip the party, and even if he could only see Kimi for five minutes, it would make his day.
Meanwhile, Kimi and Kira were at the grocery store, when the four-year-old Japanese girl got an idea.
"Mommy, do you think we could stop by Zachary's place on the way to the Christmas party at Tommy and Dil's house? I could give Zack my Christmas present, and why don't we get something to help his aunt feel better." Kimi suggested to her mother, as they were walking down the soup isle.
"That's a great idea Kimi Chan. And this can of chicken noodle soup ought to help Celeste feel all better." Said Kira with a smile, as she patted the top of her daughter's head, and put a can of chicken noodle soup in the cart.
Then, they went by the flower department, where they got a small bouquet of pink carnations, paid for the groceries, and headed for Zack's apartment.
The Christmas party tradition was decided on after what all went down three years ago, the Christmas party to end all Christmas parties, at Charlotte and Stu's creation known as Christmas Land. After that disasterous event, thanks to a malfunctioning snow machine, amongst other things, Peter proposed an idea. From now on, they'd have a Christmas party, where all of their friends would be invited, and the following year, Peter came up with a clever idea on determining who would host the following year's party. Naturally, he hosted the first one, where he made a fruit cake, but going by the tradition that's typically done with a king cake at Mardi Gras, he hid a plastic baby Jesus inside the fruit cake. Whoever got the piece with the baby in it, would host the next year's Christmas party. At Peter's party, Chaz got the piece with the baby in it, and after their daughter coming down with Chicken Pox the next year, it was a good thing they were the hosts, allowing Kimi to rest without having to leave the house, while everyone else partied, except for Zack, who cooencidentally, had Chicken Pox right along with her, allowing Kimi to have some company.
Unknown to the Chicken Pox twins, at dessert that year, Stu got the piece of fruit cake with the baby in it, and nearly choked on the thing. Betty ended up having to perform the heimlick remover on the inventor, and while Betty tried to argue that she should host next year's party because she saved Stu's life, Peter wasn't about to have the rules broken. The baby was in Stu's piece of cake, therefore, it would be Stu and Didi's turn to host the party the following year, and this, was their year.
As Kira and Kimi were heading to the Wehrenberg's, it suddenly hit her that Zack and Celeste wouldn't get pieces of fruit cake this year. So they stopped by the Pickles, where Peter had just arrived, as he made the fruit cake every year, despite who was hosting the party, and asked to take a couple of pieces to Celeste and Zack's. Peter cut a couple of slices of cake, and they were once again, headed for Zack's apartment.
Meanwhile, Zack was about to put on another DVD of Super Why, when he heard the doorbell ring.
"Could you get that sweetie?" Celeste called from her bedroom in between coughs.
"Sure Aunty Celeste." Zack replied, as he went to the door.
He peered through the window next to the door, and couldn't believe who he saw. To his pleasant surprise, it was Kimi and Kira on his doorstep. Overly excited, he threw open the door to see Kira holding a shopping bag and a bouquet of flowers, while Kimi held out a red and green gift bag, which she handed to Zack.
"Merry Christmas Zachary." Said Kimi with a smile, as Zack took the gift bag from her.
"Thank you Kimi." Zack replied, as he went and put the bag on the couch.
"Can we come in for a minute?" Kira asked.
"Sure." Zack replied, as he led them into the kitchen.
"We wanted to bring something to make you and your aunty feel better." Said Kimi, as Kira set the flowers down on the table, and emptied the contents of the shopping bag on the kitchen counter.
"We brought some soup and two slices of Peter's fruit cake for you and your aunt to enjoy." Said Kira.
"Awe, thanks! My aunty will be so happy!" Said Zack with a smile, as he gave Kira and Kimi a hug.
Then, he remembered that he had a gift for Kimi.
"I'll be right back." Said Zack, as he ran off to his room and returned a minute later with a small box wrapped in dark green paper.
He handed the box to Kimi, who opened the box. Inside, was a keychain of Super Thing.
"Oooh! Super Thing, my favoritest!" Kimi said excitedly.
"Uh huh. Now you can put it on your backpack, and have him with you always, even at preschool." Zack replied.
"Thank you!" Kimi replied with a smile.
"You're welcome." Said Zack, as he blushed and smiled back.
"Well, we'd better be going. Tell your aunt Celeste I hope she feels better soon, and may you both, have a very Merry Christmas." Said Kira, as she patted the top of Zack's head.
"I will." Said Zack, as he led Kimi and Kira to the door.
Once they were gone, Zack sat down on the couch. He was about to return to watching Super Why, when he noticed the red and green gift bag from Kimi. While he meant to open it while they were there, he could tell they didn't want to stay too long, as his aunt's illness was contagious, so he didn't make a fuss. If anything, as long as he saw Kimi open her gift, that's all that mattered. Then, he had an idea. Ordinarily, his aunt wouldn't like him playing with her iPhone, but he figured there was an acception to the rule. After all, it was Christmas, and it wasn't fair that Kimi didn't get to see Zack open his gift from her. He ran to his aunt's room, where he found the phone plugged into the charger on her bed side table. Luckily, she was asleep, so hopefully, she wouldn't notice. Then, he quietly tip toed back to the living room, where he went into the video app on the phone, turned on the front facing camera, and set the phone down on the coffee table.
Once it was set up and recording, he sat down on the couch, and began his short video.
"Hi Kimi, it's Zachary. I hope you enjoy your Super Thing keychain, and thank you for bringing my aunt a get well present. That was very sweet of you. However, I didn't get to open my gift. So, here I go." Said Zack, as he proceeded to open the bag.
The first thing he pulled out, was a home made card on a piece of white construction paper. It had scribbled writing on it done in red crayon, which definitely had to be done by Kimi herself, as the card read Mary Krismas Zackary, Your Friend, Kimi. Zack didn't care that half the words on the card were misspelled, he thought it was sweet, and a good try, as while Kimi was older than him, she wasn't nearly as up to speed on writing and spelling as he was, as they were still in preschool, and wouldn't really fine tune this skill until they entered kindergarten the following year.
Then, he found one other item in the bag. It was wrapped in white tissue paper. He unwrapped the tissue paper to reveal a white mug with the Super Why characters on it, and inside the mug, were a bunch of Lent Chocolate's snowmen.
"Thank you Kimi, you're the bestest. Merry Christmas." Said Zack with a smile, as he held the mug full of candy up to the camera, before stopping the video and sending it to Kira's phone via the video text messenging feature.
Luckily, Zack knew how to read, and could find Kira's name in the contact list, so it went to the right phone. No sooner had he sent off the message, when his aunt walked into the room.
"Who was at the door Zack?" Celeste asked, as she took a seat on the couch.
"Aunty Celeste, please, don't be mad at me. It was Kimi and Kira. They stopped by to give me my Christmas present and a care package for you. They had to leave, so I borrowed your phone to make a video for Kimi of me opening her gift." Explained Zack.
"Oh, I could never be mad at you. You wanted Kimi to see you open her gift, and it was very thoughtful of them to think of me. Come on, let's go have some dinner. I'm not very hungry, but if I don't eat something, I'll never get better." Said Celeste, as she and Zack headed into the kitchen.
Roughly half an hour later, the two of them were sitting at the kitchen table, sharing the can of chicken noodle soup, and after dinner, they had their pieces of fruit cake for dessert. No sooner had Celeste taken her first bite of cake, when she spit something out of her mouth.
"What's wrong Aunty Celeste?" Zack asked, when Celeste opened her hand to reveal a small plastic baby Jesus.
"Guess who's hosting next year's Christmas party?" Celeste asked.
"We are? Cool! I hope we don't get sick next year." Said Zack, as he took another bite of fruit cake.
"Me too. Being sick is no fun." Said Celeste.
"I hear ya. It was no fun having Chicken Pox last year." Said Zack.
Meanwhile, Kira received the video message on her phone, and seeing that it was for Kimi upon playing the video, she took her phone into the Pickles living room, where the gang was all about to sit down and watch Tommy and Dil's copy of the Reptar Christmas DVD that Zack got the previous Christmas from his aunt. Kira came up behind the couch and gently tapped Kimi on the shoulder. She turned to see her mother.
"What is it mommy?" Kimi asked.
"Can you come with me for a minute? You have a video message." Kira asked.
Kimi got up and followed her mother into the kitchen, where she saw the video. She smiled when she saw the video.
"You're welcome Zachary. Merry Christmas." Kimi whispered softly as the video ended, and Kira sent a message back.
At Zack's apartment, while most three-year-olds would be having their parent or guardian reading them Twas the Night Before Christmas late on Christmas eve, Zack, being the genius and advanced kid he was, was the acception to this rule. Ordinarily, his aunt would read him her Braille copy of the book, but with her throat being slightly soar, she put on a CD version of A Christmas Carole by Charles Dickins for them to listen to together that evening, as they saw to winding down for the night.
As they were listening to the book, the text from Kira came in on Celeste's phone. She read the message and responded.
"Thank you Kira and Kimi for the get well gift. The soup really helped. Also, please tell everyone at the party that it looks like we'll be hosting it next year, provided our health isn't at stake." Celeste wrote in her message back to Kira.
Once she sent the message, she leaned back on the couch, next to her nephew, who was just as happy as could be, despite having to miss the Christmas party. Because while he only got to see Kimi for five minutes, or more like ten minutes in the end, he got what he wanted all day, and that's all that mattered.
Back at the Pickles, as everyone was watching the Reptar Christmas movie, Kimi couldn't help but smile and think to herself, that she, too, had a wonderful Christmas, even if she only saw Zack for a short time, just being able to see his face and brighten his day, made her feel good.
And this, ends chapter 3. Come back tomorrow, when we find out what takes place when Zack and his aunt, host the Christmas party.
Author's Note: Well, I'm feeling a little bit better after writing that chapter. Goes to show you, writing a little bit of Fan Fiction can surely cheer you up after having a drag of a day.