The song Exist For Love by Aurora inspired me to write the ending part of the chapter. Please listen to it, it is truly a beautiful song.…

A sleek blue car pulled into the driveway, Victor behind the wheel rolled the windows down waving at the girls. "Who's ready to take photos with Santa?" "I AM!" Antonia shouted loudly ready to take her picture with a possibly weird old man wearing a costume. For this special occasion, she traded her usual grungy attire for a more traditional goth look. Her flowy black dress was adorned in lace. A tight corset wrapped around her body making her feel a bit constricted. Her face was painted white and dark liner covered her eyes. She was more than ready for this moment. Nicole on the other hand was dressed more comfortably. She has a brown fuzzy sweater with little bear ears on the hood. Her bell-bottom jeans had tiny hearts embroidered on the back pockets. She had bright pink eyeliner to match her hair. Brown boots kept her feet warm, and her lacy socks were also brown. She also had a light pink purse that pulled the look together. "Let's go before Toni explodes."

They arrived at the mall to meet up with the rest of their gang. Richard was seen leaning on one of the couches in the center plaza with Kori as they had a conversation. Garfield had been attempting to flirt with Rachel that left her uninterested and was draining her social battery. Kori slowly moved from the couch, "Hi friends. We saw that the line was long but still wanted to hear your opini- Antonia!" She got close to the girl and examined her hair and makeup. "What intricate designs are displayed by your makeup. I've only seen this a few times. It's so interesting… and your hair! It is like a sea urchin from the ocean." She smiled widely, amazed at the work she had put into her outfit. The rest of the group were also in awe of her outfit. "The look is nice but I'm honestly not surprised you'd do that," Rose looked up from her phone sipping her drink. Garth and Roy got closer to Victor, "Well no matter when we plan to get in line, it's still going to take a while. I say we should do it now," Garth looked at his friends to see if they agreed with his statement. Pretty much everyone agreed and got up to move towards the photoshoot.

There were beautiful lights all over the mall with large Christmas trees in the center of the pathways. Children were seen running around and playing with others on the fake grass patches. Nicole looked at the scenery feeling the Christmas spirit. "I love it when kids play with other kids instead of being glued to their parents' phones." She looked at two little girls holding hands giggling as they went down the slide together. One girl was wearing a Care Bear jacket with purple pants. Her friend was wearing a dark red onesie with little silver stars. "Nice makeup how long did it take you?" Rachel asked Antonia, looking at her also, noticing she was sporting more makeup than usual. "Oh about an hour to an hour and a half," she smiled, and Rachel looked impressed with her skilled look. "It definitely paid off." "Thanks, mate."

The teens were an amoeba traveling to the other side of the mall to get their pictures taken. After about forty minutes it was finally their chance to decide the groups and what they wanted to do. Some of the boys decided to take the opportunity and give the camera classic bodybuilder poses. Karen and Mal decided on taking a simple but cute couple photo with Santa. Jiya, Rachel, and Antonia got some very vampy pictures with Santa. The few others did some really silly photos with Santa and each other. The old man looked at them and waved goodbye at them, "I wanna see how they turned out." Antonia waited by the machine then was tapped on the shoulder. "It's going to take 15 minutes," Joseph signed and shrugged his shoulders. The Santa actor came to the group before seeing a crying baby who wasn't able to calm down. "I'm really glad you all decided to do something fun instead of whatever else teens do nowadays." They smiled at the old man and appreciated his work. After once again waiting, the hard copies of the photos were ready. "We look so good!" Garfield was satisfied with the poses he and the other boys did. Antonia laughed when she saw her photo with Santa and sent the digital prints to her mom. "So, what do we want to do now?" Karen looked at her friends while holding onto Mal. Richard thought for a moment then asked, "Is anyone hungry?" Some of the teens had eaten beforehand and weren't really interested in wanting to snack on anything small. Wally on the other hand was starving like always. "I'm going to grab a bite if anyone wants to join me." The groups decided to split off then recollect later to go ice skating. Antonia, Nicole, Joseph, Roy, and Garth decided to all be in a group together. They decided to first hop around stores instead of looking for specific ones.

Rachel glanced at Garfield, "That doesn't even look normal. It just looks like a bunch of random ingredients mixed together." He took a bite of the meal looking offended and judged her super greasy burger. "Hey, at least I know what I'm putting in my body. Eating vegan is clean. Right? Wally knows what's up." The boy was surprisingly eating a salad with lots of fruits and nuts. Peering over to his girlfriend who was currently enjoying a boba milk tea, he shrugged his shoulders as he wasn't paying attention to their conversation. "Man, no one cares about your rabbit food. Just eat it and move on with life," Victor grabbed a french fry dipping it in ketchup. "Whatever. Your opinion doesn't apply. What about you Jiya? What do you think? You agree with me right?" "I don't know… I kinda like the way Red 40 tastes." Rachel began to chuckle, and Wally gave his girlfriend a toothy grin. "Seriously?"

Mal pulled Karen closer next to the Christmas tree. "Smile!" She clicked the camera and it took the picture on her phone. She looked at the picture then positioned the phone to take another one. She was then caught off guard as Mal was still looking at her. Their eyes locked and he cupped her face. "I love you." He glided his thumb across her cheek smiling as he saw his girlfriend beginning to blush. "I love you too, Malcolm". He put his hand behind her head leaning down to kiss her. It was delicate and passionate. Mal really wanted to show he cared about his girlfriend often but sometimes never found the right words to do so. She waited for him to give the signal that he was done and pulled away softly. They gazed at each other without saying and Karen smiled, "Let's go to that record store you like."

Rose was a bit confused about what the girl meant. "Kori, I don't understand. How can you like-" "THIS ONE IS JUST SO ADORABLE!" The two girls were at a Korean plushies store where Kori was enthralled in different plush animals. "LOOK AT THIS ONE. RICHARD! ISN'T HE THE CUTEST!" Richard carefully held the large duck plush from his girlfriend and dragged Rose to another section. They were now in a section where insects had large eyes and shiny bodies. "Oh wow…" Rose picked up a beetle that was shifting colors and smiling at her. For a moment she actually considered getting it but looked at the price tag. "Okay, it is ridiculous to buy this thing for more than fifty bucks." She turned to see Kori had picked up a pink caterpillar that had light stripes on its back. She softly made kissing noises as she bumped the plush against Richard's face. He softly chucked and Rose was uncomfortable with their mushy moment. She took out her phone to see if she had any messages. "Why hasn't he texted back?."

"Woah this is weird," Roy picked up a ceramic mushroom that had an odd face. They were currently in a new store that opened up in the mall and it had all kinds of oddities. Antonia was living for it and planned on purchasing some pieces of jewelry. Garth grabbed the mushroom creature and noticed the other items in those sections. He then made an odd expression, "Why does it look like that," he then started laughing when Roy did his best to replicate the objects. While Antonia was asking Nicole's opinion for what earrings to get, Joseph held up a large crystal cluster. "Oh wow!" She walked over there but then her excitement ran away. "Oh, Joey these are fake crystals… You can tell by how they look and feel." The boy shrugged his shoulders then observed the other items. Some crystals were shaped like animals and thought they were really neat. "I think I want this one," the girl held up a little selenite star crystal that was sitting in a bowl.

Angelita rolled her eyes at the male customer who had been arguing with her for the past five minutes. "Sir, if you don't have the receipt I can't give you money back. When you ordered this item a phone number, email, or store membership card should have pulled up. I don't see anything for you." He kept fiddling with his lip piercings to keep himself calm. "Well, that girl over there saw me buy it the other day," he pointed to Elizabeth who shook her head. Angelita took a closer look at the vinyl record and knew he was just trying to scam them. There were lots of scratches on the item and dust covered the packaging. "When did you buy this? It looks like it was purchased a lot longer than a week ago." The disc was now out of the sleeve to show the customer the condition. His face grew red, and he began to exhale heavily. "I deserve my refund, and I want it now! Let me speak to the manager!" The man was about forty years old and smelled like a bag of chips. He was large and began to worry the girl. Samuel heard the commotion from the back of the store and walked over there. He saw the punk and made a disgusted face, "Are you the manager?" "He's not here right now but I can assist you with what you need," looking at him up and down, Samuel knew this guy was nothing but trouble. "This girl right here is refusing to service me," he pointed to an Angelita who was backing away from the counter. Samuel went behind to get his information and looked at the record. In the back of the store Karen and Mal were watching the scene go down. Mal was currently looking at different tunes that were on sale for Christmas specials. The man was now furious and cussing out the two teens. Samuel was keeping a straight face to ensure that the smelly man wouldn't get a kick out of causing a scene. He quickly turned and nodded his head for Angelita to leave the counter. She walked away to head to the office room and closed the door a bit. Karen and Mal decided to leave the store in case something crazy would happen and they were met with Antonia's group. "Any good deals," asked Garth. "Yeah, but some grown man trying to fight over trying to return a used record to get money." Mal eyebrows were raised indicating that he was annoyed with the way he was acting. "Oooh, I wanna see," Antonia walked into the store and Nicole followed. The other three stayed outside the store chatting on the benches.

Antonia walked into the store seeing the man walk out in anger. He saw Antonia and shouted at her, "Halloween is over!" She stood at the entrance confused and made eye contact with Nicole who was also surprised. The two laughed it off, Elizabeth looked at her and began explaining what happened. Angelita walked back to the entrance to leave for her break, slowly coming to a stop when she saw the girls chatting. "Oh my god, Antonia your outfit…" A hand came up to Angelita's mouth in astonishment. "Oh, I dressed up to see Santa," she did a cute pose which made the girls giggle. "That's crazy. What are you doing now?" She took out her phone and smiled looking at her notifications. "Well, I'm here with my friends and we're all just hanging out." She nodded,textingDominic who was already at the mall. Joseph walked into the store signing to Nicole. "Hey," she gently tapped her arm, "I think they're going ice skating already." Angelita looked at the two with glistening eyes. Nicole noticed this and looked at Antonia, she knew Angelita really wanted to hang out and it would be rude to not do it now. "I'll meet you guys there. Let me chat for a bit." The girl walked out the store and Angelita conversed with the girl as she waited for her boyfriend to come into the store. As Antonia explained their photo shoot with Santa, an upset Samuel walked past them holding a large box. He did a double take smiling at the girl, "What are you dressed up for?" He carefully looked at the little accessories and garments Antonia wore setting down the CDs incorrectly. "Me and my friends just had a photoshoot with Santa," she giggled as she explained to Samuel who didn't take his eyes off her. Angelita received a message and looked at it. Dominic and Johnathan entered the store. "I'm taking a break just to let you know," Angelita waved her hand at Samuel who went back into his grumpy attitude. "Alright but don't take an hour. We have to do inventory tonight, don't forget." The girl rolled her eyes and locked arms with Antonia to take her out of the store. "Bye Samuel," she said softly looking at the boy, yet he had already walked back to the office room.

The weather was piercing cold as people lined up for the food trucks. Some of the group had decided they wanted to get something to eat but Nicole really wanted to skate. The skating rink was set up outside the mall meaning it was going to be packed. The girl laced up her skates and waddled over to the ice. She began slowly moving giggling nervously. She had only done this a few times, but it seemed like Garth was a professional. "Hey! That's not fair!" He circled around her and did a little spin laughing it off as she began to lose balance. Roy tried to replicate what Garth did but ended up crashing into the girl. They came down to the ice with Roy smooshing her torso. "Roy! Get off me." He laughed getting up and tried to aid Nicole but ended up falling again. Joseph then made his way over to the group to provide help. Roy clung to the barricade, "I'm staying against the wall because I don't want to end up with a broken arm." "And I don't want a broken rib cage," replied the girl with lot's of sass. Joseph grabbed onto her gently and she lifted her body. She saw him smile softly and held her hand. She felt a warm sensation throughout her body and began to blush. The two quietly looked into each other's eyes and Garth took that as a hint to leave. He grabbed Roy by the arm and the two were now left alone. Joseph demonstrated with his feet what to do and she did her best to follow. After five minutes, Nicole was still struggling with skating and the boy signed, "By yourself now." He put a hand on her lower back and moved her forward. He grinned as she held on to his arm, "Joey I'm going to fall," she got close to him hugging him so he wouldn't push her off. He smiled at her trying to put his hands on her shoulders. He shook his head and left her on the rink as she giggled in anxiety. The girl pulled her hoodie on her head and hoped to not fall again.

Richard and his friends watched the others struggle in skating and were surprised when Kori zipped in between and around people. Rachel and Garfield were currently standing outside the rink watching her friends. "You wanna see my hot moves?" He leaned against her back in which she moved away from him. "You mean you're going to fall on your face and cry? Sure. I wanna watch that" Victor walked up to her observing the rest of their group have fun, "You're not going to join?" She didn't look at him but kept her eye on Joseph who made his way to them. "Skating isn't my thing. It's frigid and if I fall, I'll be wet and cold." Victor noticed the blond and asked, "So, what's up with you and Nicole?" He made eye contact with him doing his best to keep a straight face but he couldn't hide his smile. Victor leaned down to be eye level with him, "I know you like her. Don't even try to hide it!" He broke out in a smile using one hand to cover his face and Garfield started giggling uncontrollably. He grabbed onto Joseph's shirt, "Bro you gotta ask her out now! This would be the perfect time!" Rachel on the other hand was not very interested in this conversation. Although she and Joseph ended on good terms, she felt like she had no opinion to share. "Come on! You can practice asking one of us… Oh… Sorry, Rachel." She squinted her eyes at the boy and looked at Joseph. Victor had an idea, "Look you can practice what you wanna say on us guys and Rachel can be the judge on what you need help with. He raised an eyebrow, "You mean what I can sign? I can't speak." Rachel smiled at him and pulled him in close to her. She wrapped her arm around his shoulder to prevent the guys from hearing. "There's a really cool area in the mall in front of the food court that I think Nicole would really like. It looks like a bunch of stars falling down that would make it feel romantic." Garfield shoved his face in between them hoping to hear them but was yanked away by Victor. Joseph locked eyes with the girl and nodded his head. He pulled Rachel closer to give her a hug but didn't notice Nicole watching them. She had skated around the ring a few times but noticed them when she came close to the barricade. Nicole didn't know that they were talking about her and assumed that by the way they were hugging they were getting back together. Victor saw the girl and immediately reacted, "HEY GIRL! COME OVER HERE!" Garfield laughed and Rachel rolled her eyes as she pulled away from the boy. Nicole's face grew red as she came closer to them. She couldn't help but stare at Rachel, and she knew something was up. Rachel's eyes slowly widened, feeling that this was going to get bad. "Joseph has something to ask," Garfield gestured towards him as he noticed Nicole's expression. The girl looked at Joseph while tears filled her eyes. "Did I do something wrong?" Joseph's held tilted and he reached out to grab her hand. "What's going on?" She looked very upset, and her lower lip quivered. Victor and Garfield faced each other now understanding what was happening. Joseph skated close to her, "Are you okay?" She backed up now with tears falling from her face, "I don't wanna talk right now," soft came out of her. From her perspective, it had looked like Joseph and Rachel were having a moment to themselves. She looked at her friends who noticed her crying. "Nicole, we're only having a regular conversation. Nothing is going on!" Rachel was worried about the girl and talking to heroverwhelmed her even more. The girl began to skate away, but he kept following behind. "I'm so infatuated with you and you don't even realize it, Joey. It's like you're avoiding it. Seriously! It's like… like… this is all a joke to you! You act like you don't see me or care." Their other friends who were on the ice rink noticed what was going on and watched Nicole's meltdown. Joseph tried signing to her but she looked away. "Why her? Why not me? You never pick me!" She faced the floor sobbing and Joseph's heart raced. Their friends tried to see what they could do about the situation but were stuck on how to help Nicole calm down. Rose saw the girl and slowly guided her outside the rink. Joseph tapped Rose's shoulder and explained what was going on, but she tried to manage Nicole. He got ahold of the girl and held both hands, "Let me go Joseph. This isn't funny," he leaned in to hug her as she pushed him off. "Get away from me!" Rose blocked Joseph from grabbing her again and the girl went to the booth taking off her skates. He took his own skates off and ran up to her, she turned to him and then completely went off. People began to surround the two and Garth and Rose made their best efforts to make them move away.

"Antonia!" Victor ranup to the girl who was currently enjoying an ice cream cone by the mall exit. "Have you gotten my messages? I've been texting you this whole time." Victor's face was filled with concern while the girl took the device out her bag. She tapped on the screen and the buttons. "Oh sorry mate, it looks like my phone died." "Well, we tried to call you because Nicole had a freak out. She was cry-" "What! When? Where-" "She had a freakout over Joseph hugging Rachel. Nothing serious happened though because we were right there. We didn't know she was capable of having a meltdown like that," Garfield explains and Karen looked at the girl with an upset expression. She didn't like the idea that Antonia was hanging out with Angelita and the other friends that she was once close to. "Toni, you should go check up on her to see how she's doing," Angelita put her hand on Antonia's arm looking concerned. "Where were you this whole time? Hanging out with them," asked the sassy girl. Antonia saw that her friends didn't seem to like that she was around other people she didn't plan to hang out with. Dominic face went stiff when Karen began sounding rude. "You're supposed to be hanging out with us," she turned around and began walking back to the ice rink. The goth felt conflicted as it seemed like there was another issue that wasn't being talked about. "We need you to come talk to Nicole to get her to calm down," Victor calmly put his arm around the girl to guide her away from Angelita. She turned back to say her goodbyes, then walked out the door to look for her best friend. "Who the fuck does she think she is? Why does she let her friends talk like that?" Johnathan looked at the teens walking farther away, he rolled his eyes as they began to walk back to the music store. Dominic turned to them signing, "Her name is Karen for a reason."

"What's wrong love? Is everything ok-" "I wanna go home!" She had cried most of her makeup off and sat on the bench outside the mall entrance. She sat next to her best friend and the girl laid her hand on her shoulder. "Everything sucks right now. I'm so tired of everything being crazy. I just want it to get better." The two spent the next thirtyminutes talk about what happened. Antonia, of course, gave her the perspective that was stated by Victor and Garfield and the girl cried more. "This is so embarrassing. I always make things even worse." They sat there waiting for the mall to close and for the rink to start kicking people out. Joseph slowly walked over to them and Nicole was still sitting with her face in between her knees. Antonia stopped hugging the girl and waved to Joseph. "I think now is the time to say what you really want to say." The girl looked at him and got stiff. "You don't have to say anything now if you don't want to." She gazed at the ice rink trying to catch her breath and put her feet down. "I think I can try to talk," she softly responded,Antonia got upand let Joseph sit where she was. He sat down quietly and waited for her to begin. A few minutes passed once Nicole felt comfortable she started telling him all the things she had bottled up inside. He pulled her in and hugged her as she started choking up again. He softly stroked Nicole's hair as she explained her feelings to him. Eventually, she began also explaining how stressed she had been with the situation of her dad's anger issues. The tears that fell down her face as she laid her head on his chest made a little wet spot on his jacket. He made sure that she would let go of their embrace first before moving up. "I really like you Joseph, but I can't read your mind. I don't know what's going on up there." He gently wiped away the tear gliding down her cheeks and held her tightly. After a while, she finally let go of him and sat up correctly. He kept his eyes on her as she took a deep breath and wiped her face. Joseph pushed her hair behind her ear and gently booped her nose to get her attention. "If you need to say something, tell me at that moment. Don't wait until you bottle everything up." She looked at him and leaned in for another hug. He nuzzled her neck squeezing her tightly as she caressed his head playing with his blond locks. They sat there hearing the chatter and music die down. Her phone went off ringing and she realized that it was probably time to leave. He rubbed her back as she took out her phone to call their friends. In the next moment, a car pulled up and they got in to go home.