Chapter 11, Another Year, Another Letter, and a Phone Conversation

It was now Christmas number two since Zack moved to wheeling, and while he longed to go to California the previous year, it didn't happen the following year, because his aunt was needed to do the gravy shift at the radio station on the evening of Christmas eve, not getting home till possibly two or three o'clock in the morning. Poor Zack sat there, alone on the couch, as he heard the doorbell ring. He went to answer it to find a girl from his school, a brounette girl of about age sixteen named April standing there, with the box of cheese pizza he had recently ordered for delivery from Pizza Hut that evening.

"Who is it?" Zack asked upon walking up to the door.

"It's Pizza Hut." Said April on the opposite side of the door, as Zack opened it and stared at her.

The girl stared back at him blusing, as she obviously had a crush on the blond, but Zack's heart was already taken. Of course, this girl would not ever know Zack's crush, because his seventh grader Japanese friend lived many miles away across the country.

"That will be ten fifty." Said April, as Zack took the pizza box from her, and set it down on a nearby table, then fumbled through his wallet, till he found a ten dollar bill and two quarters, handing it to her.

"There you go April, thanks." Said Zack.

"No problem. Say, I am finished with my shift, would it be ok if I came in?" April asked.

"Uh, no. My aunt's not here and I'm not allowed to have people over when she's not home." Said Zack, as he quickly slammed the door in April's face.

Over the last year, things changed at the middle school, where the middle school and high school were combined, because the old high school was being torn down to build a multi plex movie theater in its place. Of course, while ordinarily, this would have ruined Zack's chances at being the keyboard player in the jazz band, it didn't, since the previous keyboard player ended up moving away to Florida over the summer in between eighth and ninth grade, giving Zack the position. But on top of it, came April, who seriously had a crush on him, but Zack could care less.

He picked up his pizza and made his way to the living room, where he set it down on the coffee table, and was about to watch some episodes of Weird Science on demand, when he noticed the stack of mail on the table.

"Hmmm, I wonder if Kimi sent me another letter this year? It's been a while since we've talked." Zack thought to himself, as he went through the stack of mail, and found a white envelope addressed to him.

He opened it up and saw it was another letter from Kimi, only this one was typed up on a computer.

Dear Zachary,

Hope this finds you well. Sorry I never called you back last Christmas, by the time I got your message, it was too late to call back, and I was pretty tired, thanks to jet lag. I did receive your letter, only by the time I got it, school started back up again, and seems I've been busy, once again, short circuiting my time to talk to you. I sadly, didn't get to go to Japan this year, because mom broke her ankle right after Thanksgiving, and didn't wish to travel with an injury. Seeing we just finished an argument over my traveling there by myself, and her claiming I wasn't old enough to leave the country by myself unsupervised, I decided to sit down and write you another letter, catching up on what's been happening since last Christmas.

Well, the romantic couple known as Tommy and Rachel are no more. To make a long story short, Rachel moved away, and we obviously don't know Tommy as well as we all thought. Yeah, I was stupid enough to go along with this plan. Thinking Tommy really missed Rachel, as he made a big deal over her while we went to the bowling ally a couple of days after she moved, we recently found out that Dil was trying to market Impatience. Ok, better fill you in on a couple of other details that have occurred since last Christmas. Angelica's mom, Charlotte, lost her job at Mega Corp. To get back into the swing of things, she got Dil to market this game he started that we all play together called Impatience. I'd tell you how to play the game, but better leave that up to Dil, provided he wants to. Well, they were having a launch party for his game, and we decided, to cheer Tommy up, we'd invite Rachel, who only moved like forty-five minutes away. We then find out that Tommy was only faking the whole thing, and he got all mad at us for not believing him in the first place. He also brought along this new girl he met at the bowling ally named Anita, who ran off once she discovered Tommy to be in her eyes, a two timer with a mental problem. To put it simply, Tommy hasn't spoken to us in six months or more, and I'll be shocked if he starts speaking to us again come Christmas.

And as for Dil's game? If you haven't seen Impatience in stores, is because he decided to go back on marketing the thing, once he saw how nuts things were getting to be with what a big deal Charlotte was making out of it. In other news, Tommy and Dil's family did get a swimming pool. Ok, more like half a pool, after the contracters screwed up their foundation, causing several dollars of damage. Meanwhile, during the construction process, we found an old Reptar toy hidden in the yard. Yeah, remember him? Well, my brother thought we were cursed thanks to finding him. In the end, he was only upset about throwing out a childhood memory, and we decided to keep our old toy after all.

If that's not enough when it comes to losing childhood memories, you probably heard that Armidillo Dave was canceled earlier this year. Well, I vaguely recall you and your aunt introducing us to that comic book character back when we were in preschool, but ever since kindergarten, Chuckie's been like, obsessed with that guy. He was pretty upset over the cancelation, and neglected to help Tommy with a science project, but at the time I'm writing you this letter, he's finally over it, and Tommy got his project done on time.

Also, speaking of Tommy, he did win an award for that movie he entered into a contest right before last Christmas, and we all threw him a surprise party. Chuckie spilled the beans right before the party, but we all still had fun nonetheless. And then at spring break, we snuck into a PG13 movie and stopped a robbery at the mall. As you can see, life has been pretty crazy, that is, till seventh grade started at the beginning of the year.

I'm still in Japanese club, and I've been asked to help decorate for the winter carnival dance, which is coming up at Valentine's Day. I was thinking of asking Z to go with me. Oh yeah, you probably don't know who Z is. I met him last year. He's got green hair, wears an earring, and leather clothing. My brother thought he was a creep when we met, but soon learned he was ok. Well, that is, until this year. Two new guys came to school this year, named Izic and Alex. Like Z, they have different colored hair, and are always making trouble. Z has gotten to where he'd rather hang out with them, than with me, and I feel a bit, left out. I really wish you could move back home, then I'd ask you to go to the dance with me, but since I can't, I just wanted to let you know that I was thinking about you.

Well, I can't think of much else to say, and want my letter to get there in time for the holidays. Hope things have improved with you since last year, feel free to call at any time. Chances are I'll be available on Christmas eve to talk, since I'll be stuck at home this year, with nowhere to go.

Your Friend,

Kimi

Zack finished reading the letter as he took another bite of his cheese pizza, which was practically spilling melted cheese in his lap, as he stared at the letter. He then finished his slice and ran and got the cordless phone out of his aunt's bedroom. He would have called Kimi from his cell phone, only the battery was dead, and he hadn't put it on the charger. He sat back down on the couch and gave her house phone a call. He heard two rings followed by a sniffly sounding Kimi.

"Finster residence, this is Kimi speaking." Said Kimi in a nazely voice.

"Hi Kimi, it's Zack, and you don't sound so good." Said Zack into the phone.

"I have a cold. Hince, why I'm home all alone on Christmas eve instead of being at Susie's Christmas party." Kimi replied, as she blew her nose into a tissue.

"That makes two of us." Said Zack on the other end of the phone, as he took another bite of his cheese pizza.

"Oh? Well where's your aunt?" Kimi asked.

"She had to work the gravy shift at the radio station. She won't be home till probably two or three hours into Christmas day." Zack replied.

"So, did you get my letter?" Kimi asked.

"I sure did. Sounds like you've been busy. Did Tommy ever start speaking to you again?" Zack asked.

"Yeah, we all started speaking again come Thanksgiving, when we all ended up having to do a group project together over our holiday break, and went and helped his grandma Lulu at a homeless shelter. Also, thanks to Peter, he paid to get the damages at his house fixed, and their pool is finally finished. Hopefully the next time you get to come visit, we can go swimming." Said Kimi.

"That would be great!" Said Zack with a smile.

"So, what's up with you?" Kimi asked.

"Well, things have changed a great deal at school. I now go to extended high school, as at the beginning of the year, the high school and middle school murged, so I won't be graduating until my senior year of high school." Said Zack.

"Oh, that's too bad." Kimi replied.

"Nah, not really. At least now that the high school is there, the older kids in middle school aren't picking on me anymore because of being so smart. The only drawback, I've been more prone to illness this year, and have been out three times with various illnesses. Got a stomach bug the second week of school, bronchitis at Halloween, and at Thanksgiving, I had a rash that was contagious, so ended up having a plate of leftovers brought home to me by my aunt from my grandparents Thanksgiving table." Said Zack.

"How are you doing now?" Kimi asked.

"Luckily, I'm not sick for Christmas, though I ought to be, since I'm stuck at home all alone for the holidays." Zack protested.

"Don't fret it Zack, at least we have each other to talk to." Said Kimi warmly.

Zack just stopped and smiled, as he stared out the window to see some snowflakes falling down.

"You're right Kimi, at least there's that." Zack replied, just as Kimi let out a sneeze.

"Bless you Kimi." Said Zack.

"Thanks." Said Kimi, as she started coughing.

"Oooh, that doesn't sound good. Maybe I should let you go, so you can go rest." Said Zack.

"Thanks, I could lie down." Said Kimi.

"Oh, my cell phone number has changed slightly." Said Zack.

"What is it now?" Kimi asked.

"The seven digit number's the same, but the area code is now the area code for Wheeling, West Virginia, not Yucaipa, California." Zack replied.

"Thanks, I'll be sure to update this contact info in my phone." Said Kimi.

"And can you please also do me another favor?" Zack asked.

"Sure Zachary, anything." Said Kimi.

"Think we could try to find more time to talk more often, and not just at the holidays?" Zack asked.

"I'd like that." Said Kimi, as she blew her nose on another tissue.

"Great! Well, I'll talk to you later. Feel better, and Merry Christmas." Said Zack.

"Thanks. Merry Christmas." Said Kimi in between coughs, as their call disconnected.

While Zack felt bad that Kimi was home sick, he couldn't help but smile after he hung up the phone. He was once again, alone on Christmas eve, but getting to talk to Kimi on the phone, made the evening all worth while, as he dug into the rest of his cheese pizza, and watched some Weird Science on the demand channel on TV.

Meanwhile, after Kimi got off the phone, she took some more cough sirup before crawling back into bed, but before she crawled back into bed, she pulled open her nightstand drawer, where she pulled out a little dark purple heart shaped box. She opened the lid and pulled out her turtle dove she had received from Zack as a Christmas present five years ago. She sat there on her bed, examining the turtle dove in her hand, as she turned it over and over, smiling down at it.

"Merry Christmas Zachary." Kimi whispered to herself, as she put the turtle dove back into the box, closed it up, and put it away in the drawer.

She was about to close the drawer, when she saw the most recent photo she had received of Zack, the school picture he sent of himself last year with his letter. She picked up the picture and studied it for several minutes, until her eyes started to grow heavy, as the drowsiness of the medicine was starting to kick in. Once she couldn't keep her eyes open any longer, she shoved the picture back into her nightstand drawer, turned out the light, and went to sleep.

And this, ends chapter 11. So, what will happen next time? Will they get a Christmas together anytime soon? Find out, in chapter 12, which I hope to release sometime soon.