One Week Later, Shane's House, 4:49 PM….

"Aaaaand, that's a wrap. Whaddya think, son? Ain't it a beauty?" Big Kev asked, admiring his work.

The Price boys had been spending most of the day decorating their house for the holiday season. They would've done it sooner, but a combination of procrastination and the elder Price's work schedule prevented that from happening. But, as the old saying goes, better late than never. With 3 days to spare, their home was all Christmas'd up. Shane was responsible for the decorations on the front door, which consisted of some wallpaper and a couple of stickers. Kevin went out and bought a tree along with all the ornaments. Finally, the father and son combined their efforts in order to bring the tree into the house and decorate it as they saw fit. Although it was a relatively long process, and it resulted in Papa Price suffering a minor knee injury, they saw it more as bonding more than work anyway.

"It sure is. This is probably the best we've done since mom was here. Definitely the best looking tree we've ever had." Shane proclaimed.

"Yeah, well I've made a decent amount of money over the last few months. I thought I'd go a little bigger this year."

"Wow, it finally happened. My dear old dad's gone Hollywood on me. Now he's Mr. Money Bags and shit. Crazy."

"Kid, shuuuut up. Here's the star. Get up there and put it on."

"Why do I have to put the star on top?" Price questioned.

"Two reasons, one, my knee's killing me and I can't climb up the ladder anymore today. Two, cause I'm your freakin dad and I said so."

The boy sucked his teeth, but still followed his father's orders regardless. He used the ladder propped up near the tree to get to the top. Then, he placed the literal final piece of the puzzle up there. Price then climbed back down and admired the finished product.

"Look at that. And to think I did it all by myself. That's crazy isn't it?" Kevin said aloud.

"Hold on, hold on. By yourself? Old man, have you lost your friggin mind? I've been helping you all day. Whaddya mean by yourself?"

"Son, I have no clue what you're talking about." He joked.

Shane threw his hands up in exasperation.

"I can't have anything in this house, I swear."

"Oh, you can't have anything? How's about I just take away that PlayStation I bought you, or that phone, or I know, that bed you lie in the every night."

"Okay, okay. I got the point, you're the almighty dad, and I'm just the lowly peasant living under you."

Kevin smirked and ruffled his son's hair.

"I raised a smart child it seems. On a serious note though, I legit just messed up my knee and I need to rest it as much as I can before I gotta go to work tonight. You mind grabbing the presents on the couch and putting them under the tree now that it's set up?"

"Sure thing, pops. But, are you sure about still going to work? Seems a bit dangerous to show up with an injury." Shane pointed out, concerned.

"Maybe, but this is the last night before we close for the holidays. Just one more shift, and I'm free until the 2nd. Might as well squeeze one more payday out, ya know? Some little ankle injury ain't stoppin big man from getting his money."

"I can respect it. Just be careful man."

"Pssh, I'm always careful."

While holding a present, Shane gave the man a look as if to ask, "Really?"

Kevin couldn't help but chuckle.

"Ah shut up, you don't know nothin, kid. After you're done putting the presents down there, do what you want, I'm goin to my room."

The boy nodded and got back to the task at hand. Right before the elder Price retired to his room, he felt his phone vibrate. He took it out of his pocket and read what he was just sent. After that, he turned around to address his kid one more time.

"Two more things actually. I just got a notification on my phone about somethin I ordered a while back. Listen out for the door in case they deliver it. Also, if you're tryna have Christmas dinner this year, invite some of your people if you want."

"Sure thing, dad. What's for dinner this year, anyway?"

"Same as every year. Whatever your ass comes up with."

Shane laughed.

"Understood. I won't disappoint, not that I ever do anyway."

"What about the casserole incident from two years ago?"

"We… We don't talk about that, man." The boy meekly responded.

Kevin then waved Shane off and trudged into his room.

"Ugh… so much mayonnaise." He thought to himself as he laid down.

Now, Shane was solo for the time being, happily following his father's instructions. Once the last present was set, he plopped down onto his couch, pulled out his phone, and began to think of names to invite.

"Let's see, let's see. Of course Alexa's gotta come, so I can hit her with this epic ass Christmas gift. I already know Seth's off limits. Pretty sure he said he was heading over to Iowa to visit his family for the holidays. And I think Bayley tagged along, so she's out also. Who else… Ah, there's the Squad. I wouldn't mind having the girls come over again. Not sure if Dean and Becky are available, but I'll ask just in case. Big E's out in Florida, so he's not coming obviously. Probably for the better, I might have to make two other courses just for him if he were to show up. Big guy likes to EAT."

After sorting out who he was gonna try and have over, he began with the phone calls. The first one he made was to who else, but the petite princess herself. After a couple short rings, she answered.

"Hey, babe. How are you?" She asked, happy to hear from her boy.

"I'm in a festive move, Short Stuff. Like the spirit of Santa's taken over muh body!" He answered.

Lexi laughed.

"Shut up, Price."

"Anyway, I actually called you to ask if you were up for Christmas dinner at my place. I'm cooking… I don't know yet, but I'll figure it out."

"Oh, sure, I'd be down. I was planning on seeing you regardless, so that just makes it easier."

"Awesome. So you're a lock then?"

"Yup." She confirmed.

"Cool, imma go ask the others then."

"The others?"

"Yeah, I'm trying to get some of our friends to pull up as well. A few of them won't be able to, but I'm still gonna throw the offer out to the ones that might be."

"Oh okay. Go ahead, should be fun."

"Uh huh, and if no one can come, well then that's just more food for me, you, and dad. Cause I know I'm going to end up making more than we can finish in one night." He predicted.

"I look forward to being put into a food coma by you… again." Bliss joked.

"Nice! Alright, well I gotta get on it. See ya princess, I love you."

"Love you too, babe."

Shane hung up the phone, and Alexa went back to watching television like she was doing pre-conversation. That's when it hit her, and her peace was replaced with worry.

"What if Liv shows up? I know he's gonna ask her and the rest of his band. Shit."

After going through the different possibilities in her head, she relaxed once again.

"She had enough sense not to rat on me to Ruby before, I'm fine. That shows that she understands why I had to do what I did. If she comes, who cares? I'll just play it cool."

Back to Shane, he continued with the calls. Over the next 30 minutes he had managed to lock in Dean, Becky, Rhea, and Ruby. The Uso Brothers were actually in Samoa, celebrating over there, and Cody managed to get himself grounded… during the holidays. There was an outlier however. He wasn't able to get ahold of Liv, who would normally answer as soon as he called. Now, all he got was a voicemail. He tried a couple more times, but again, all he heard was, "Hey, you've reached LIV. Can't talk right now, probably off somewhere being fabulous. Leave a message and I'll get back to you. Unless this is Enzo, in which case, screw off, loser! Okay, byeeeee."

Admittedly, he only called back the last time to hear the voicemail again. Thought it was funny. But still, he was confused. So, he hit up Ruby again.

"Dude, what's up? Something happened?" She asked.

"Nah, not really. I just wanted to know if you knew how Liv was doing. I tried calling to invite her, but no answer." He explained.

"Really? Oh, well she's probably taking a nap or something."

"You're probably right. Either way, can you let her know what's going on? I don't wanna keep blowing up her phone."

"Sure thing, Shane."

And that was the end of that. Now, what to do? Price couldn't think of much to do. He couldn't go to sleep since he was supposed to listen out for the door. Then he thought it would be a good idea to pull out the ol' PS4 do his thing on there.

"Never fails." He thought to himself.


2 Hours Later…

By this point, Kevin had gotten up and prepared to leave for the night. All the while, Shane was still out in the living room playing video games. This time it was Madden, and he was having a tough time. Man was down by two touchdowns with about 7 minutes left in the final quarter. Kevin saw this and began to laugh at his son.

"You always were ass at this game, kid."

"What?! I've beaten you before though!"

"Yeah, like 3 times! How many times have I killed you in this? Too many to friggin count."

"Man, don't you got somewhere to be or somethin?" Shane asked slightly annoyed.

"Oh lighten up, boy. I am about to step out though. Nobody came to the door, right?"

"Oh, no. I've been out here the whole time. No knocking, no ringing, no nothing."

"Weird. Well don't worry about it now I guess. Alright bud, come on over here and give your pops a hug."

The father and son embraced, and Kevin feigned punching Shane in the face.

"You know the rules, I'll see you tomorrow morning."

As headed toward the front door, he felt his pockets to see if he had forgotten anything important. Much to his chagrin, he did.

"Damn, I almost left my wallet." He said aloud.

Big Price then circled back around to his room to get said wallet. As he did that, the sound of knocking could be heard.

"Oh, there it is. Yo dad, I think your package is here."

"Nice. Go get it, please." He told his son from his room.

Getting up from the couch he thought to himself, "This is a weird time of the day for deliveries."

Oh yeah, something was about to get delivered alright.

"Hey man, thanks for the pack-…. No fuckin way."

For Shane it was as if time itself stopped for a few seconds. He genuinely could not bring himself to say or do anything. Man was frozen. After a little while, the silence.

"Mate, are ya gonna just stand there lookin' like a bloody moron, or are ya gonna let me in?"

All he could do was stand aside and let her enter the house with her suitcases in tow.

"So this is where ya live now. Not bad , not bad at all."

"Fuckin…. Midnight?!"

"In the flesh, love. Oi, ya got any food in here? Flights make me hungry, ya know."

Shane didn't even hear what she said. He just responded with an action. He pulled her in and gave her a hell of a hug. Not quite Bayley level, but still a strong one nonetheless."

"Paige… how- what- why are you here?" He said, struggling to formulate a proper sentence.

"Ain't it obvious, stupid? The package was actually your friend. Consider it an early Christmas gift. Paige here, is spending the holidays with us." Kevin said, while walking pass the two teens. He continued as he once again went to leave.

"Yo, the same rules from the house in Arizona apply here too. Don't break anything, don't burn anything, don't do anything ridiculously stupid. Got it, kid?" He asked the Brit.

"Mmm hmm, here ya loud and clear, Kevin." Paige responded with a smile.

And then there were two. Shane still couldn't believe she was standing in front of him. Well soon, she'd end up sitting on the couch. Shane followed suit, and now they were next to each other. Shane held Paige close to him, not really wanting to let her go.

"Someone missed me, huh?" She asked cheekily.

"Dude, I really did."

The only thing going through the pale girl's mind at this point, was one statement.

"Oh, this is gonna be fun."

Well, that was the only thing… until she saw the TV screen.

"You're losing the game again, aren't you?" She asked him.

With a smile on his face, Price responded.

"Midnight….. Shut the hell up."

AN: Yooooo. Christmas in Spring, am I right? Seriously, though, my apologies for the 50th hiatus I've put you guys through. Life, man. This shit is weird. Still, this story ain't dead, I promise. As always, you're the best, and I'll see you in the next chapter. Leave a review if you would. Peace out.