Happy Monday, lovelies! Christmas is fast approaching, which means things will be getting interesting. Hopefully you all enjoy the ride! ~Shaymie

Lorin's POV

"I try to speak, but nobody can hear so I wait around for an answer to appear," I sang quietly as I focused on tying my hair up in twin buns. Today was the day that we were going to the mall to do some Christmas shopping. I had already ordered some things, but there were certain things that were sold out online, which meant that I had to actually go outside. Ugh. Thankfully I didn't have to go alone. Alex, John, Eliza, Peggy, and Gil were coming with me.

"You should sing more often." I yelped and whirled around. John was leaning in my doorframe, dressed for the cold. His hair was down for once, probably to make space for the beanie he was wearing. He grinned and walked over to me, taking the bobby pins from my hands and putting them in my hair in an X. I smiled up at him and hugged him. He had been spending so much time with Darcy lately, I hardly saw him.

"I sing enough in choir, John." I grabbed my sweater from a chair and put it on, trying my best to not mess up my hair. Thankfully only a few strands got out of place. I sat down on my bed and put my shoes on, looking up at John. He smiled and sat next to my, pulling his leg up. I noticed Sharpie swirls on his shoe and snorted. He must have gotten bored and started scribbling. I didn't think he had a single pair of shoes that weren't marked on in some way.

"That's not what I mean and you know it, Lori," John laughed as he flicked my nose. I narrowed my eyes at him and huffed as I tied up the laces on my boots. I frowned at my chipped nail polish. Darcy was going to have a field day painting them when she got home. She hated when my nails got even a tiny bit ruined. I looked up as there was knocking at my door. Alex walked in, sipping on a cup of coffee. John's eyes darkened slightly as he watched him sit down at my desk.

I stood up and stretched. Eliza and Peggy should be getting here soon. They had to deal with pre-SAT Angelica, and she had been using them as study partners. I didn't know why she was taking the SAT when she had already taken it last year, but I knew better than to question her. She really wanted to get into Colombia. It was her dream school, and Angelica Schuyler always got what she wanted no matter the cost.

My phone vibrated in my pocket. I took it out and saw that Peggy had texted our group chat, saying that she was on her way with Eliza. I rolled my eyes when she sent a follow-up text, asking me to kiss Gil for her. She could do that on her own. I slid my phone back into my pocket when they started sending kissy face emojis back and forth. There were some days that I regretted them getting together.

"Pegs and Liza are on their way," I announced, grabbing my purse from the back of my chair. Alex turned and kissed me. I crinkled my nose. His lips tasted like coffee. He laughed and looked down at my desk, his finger tracing lightly around the stamp on the envelope of the letter my mother had sent me. I had skimmed over it recently. She was engaged to someone and expecting a little boy in April. She said that she wanted to come to New York and visit me to explain why she had given me up, but would understand if I never wanted to see her again. I stared at the envelope before making a quick decision. I climbed into Alex's lap and grabbed a pen and paper.

"What are you doing, Lo?" he asked as I started writing in my neatest handwriting. I bit my lip as I wrote as fast as possible without running my words together. I would probably regret this later, but Mama deserved an answer. And no matter how much I tried to tell myself that I hated her, I needed to see her again. I needed to know why she had done all the things she had done. I needed to know what I had done wrong.

"Have you caught the Hamilton disease of non-stop writing?" John asked, getting up from my bed and walked over to us. "What's so important that you had to drop everything?"

"Mama… I have to reply to her letter," I muttered, biting my lip slightly harder. Alex tugged my lip from between my teeth and kissed my head. I kept my focus on the paper. I had to get this done before I wimped out. I wasn't sure if I even wanted to see my mother again. I just needed to. "She said she wants to visit me."

"Do you want her to?" Alex asked gently. He put his hand over mine, effectively stopping me from writing. I shrugged and sighed.

"I need to know why she gave me up, Al. I can't stand not knowing. And I need to hear it from her. Just reading it won't be enough." My eyes filled with tears as I started to tremble. Whether it was from cold or anxiety, I couldn't tell. What would I do when she got here? It felt like I hadn't had an actual conversation with her ever since my father was sent to jail. I sighed and nudged Alex's hand away from me. I had to finish this letter.

John and Alex let me write in peace. I barely noticed when John started quietly playing music in the background, but I started humming along when his playlist switched over to Disney songs. The edges of my mouth twitched as songs from Moana started playing. John knew how much I loved the fact that there was a Disney princess who sang in a bit of a lower range. Now that I thought about it, did Moana even count as a princess if she was a chief's daughter?

I finished the letter as Eliza knocked on the open door, alerting us to her presence. I folded the paper and gingerly put it inside a pretty pink floral print envelope I had lying around from the stationary set Angelica had given me. I hadn't really had a use for it until now, so it had just been sitting on my desk, collecting dust. I filled out the details on the front of the envelope and took a deep breath as I stood up. I couldn't believe I was going to invite my mother to visit me, but there was no going back now.

"Lizzie almost passed out when we went to Victoria's Secret!" Peggy laughed as she shoved a forkful of chicken salad into her mouth. Eliza huffed and stared down at the tablecloth, her face red. We had gotten our Christmas shopping done (splitting into groups of girls and boys), and we were completely weighed down with shopping bags. We decided to get some lunch before heading home. Alex put an arm around my shoulder and tried to peek into my bags. I rolled my eyes and pushed him away. He wasn't finding out what I got him until Christmas.

"There was a lot of… sexy underwear," Eliza squeaked, her cheeks darkening. "How did you two just walk in there like it was no big deal?"

"Because it wasn't a big deal. Rin and I shop there. Sometimes. Okay, maybe only once." Now it was my turn to blush. When I had told Peggy that Alex and I had started having sex (I regret telling her everything, but I knew she would be furious if I hadn't told her), she practically dragged me to Victoria's Secret for what she called an extra birthday present. She probably would have bought out the entire store if I hadn't stopped her. I never really wore what she had gotten me, but Alex had found some of it when he was cleaning my room.

I pushed my empty tray away and put my head on Alex's shoulder. Being at the mall, where there were so many people, was honestly kind of draining. I felt exhausted. When I got home, I was going to take a nap. I closed my eyes as Alex took my hair down, his fingers lightly grazing my scalp. I let out a sound of contentment as he started scratching. He had been doing that a lot lately. After a few moments, I realized that the table had gone silent. I opened my eyes and frowned. John was the first one to speak.

"Lori, did you just… purr?"

My blush came back full force, and I pushed Alex's hand away from my head as everyone started laughing. I huffed and picked up my bags. If we weren't in public, and I was such a nervous wreck, I'd probably tell them that nothing was funny. But since we were in such a crowded place, my throat felt like it was stuffed full of cotton, and I was even more anxious than I normally would be.

"That may have been the most adorable thing you've ever done," Eliza giggled. She looked over at a clock on the wall. I followed her gaze. It was almost four o'clock. We had to get going soon. Apparently everyone else had the same idea, because they started cleaning up the table. Alex wrapped his arm around my shoulder when they had finished. I squeezed close to his side when we started walking out of the mall. We were almost to the cars (we had driven here in two separate cars since Gil's car was stupidly tiny) when I saw a small dark thing curled up near the trash can. I dropped my bags and ran over to it.

It was a kitten. I picked it up carefully, thankful that it didn't lash out at me. Then again, it didn't look like it was in any condition to do much of anything. It was terribly dirty, its fur was matted, and it was shivering. I took my scarf off and wrapped it around the poor thing. How could someone leave such a tiny thing just lying around in the snow? How long had it been here? It was light, even for a kitten. I couldn't just leave it here...

"Lo, I already know what you're thinking. We can't take a stray cat in." I jumped as Alex came up behind me. "What about Dumpling?"

"She'll be fine. It's not like we're throwing her out." I looked up at Alex and gave him my best puppy dog eyes. I could see his resolve melt away a little bit and pulled off the saddest look I could manage. "Al, it's just a baby! I can't just let it sit out here in the snow! Look at his widdle face!"

Alex sighed and ran a hand through his hair. He turned to Gil and yelled something in French, putting an arm on my waist as he led us over to the car. I grinned. We wouldn't have to leave the cat behind! I didn't know if we'd be able to keep him, since we still had to go through George and Martha. But even if we couldn't keep him, we would at the very least be able to clean him up and give him to a good home.