Act 2 | Chapter 3

"Good morning Zoey." Miss Blackmar greeted me. She was in the middle of cooking breakfast and had just only woken up.

"G- Good morning Miss Blackmar." I sat down at the table, and she put a plate in front of me.

"I heard about the incident. I'm sorry you didn't get into the university."

"It's fine. My uh... my painting was ruined, so I got disqualified."

"I'm sorry to hear that. Not even a photo of your art would work I guess?" Miss Blackmar sat across from me, putting a large platter of fresh pancakes between the two of us.

"I wish."

The two of us began putting some of the pancakes onto our plates and dug in. Miss Blackmar tried to lighten the mood with me, and I guess for the most part it worked.

"So, I was thinking about going out to buy us a tree today. Would you care to join us, Zoey?"

"Funny." I replied, swallowing, "We were actually going to ask you that."

"Guess that answers my question!" She giggled, putting another empty plate out for Riley when she woke up.

"I don't think my family's setting anything up, so I was going to ask if I could stay here for Christmas. They're probably just going to celebrate together, my mom and dad. My brother will be off at the college campus and... I'll just be forgotten." I couldn't help but let out a sigh. As sad as it sounded, that was true. I would try celebrating with my family every year, but I was never acknowledged. Every now and then, my parents would get me something, but I have had to rely on getting things myself most of the time.

"Of course. But if your parents ask you to go home, I'll have Riley drive you back, alright?"

"I need to stop back at my house anyway. I'll need to get some clean clothes, and pick up my gifts for the two of you."

"Oh, how kind of you!" Miss Blackmar smiled at me.

"I got my parent's gifts. I do every year. Sometimes they might give me something, but not always." The more I thought about my home life, the more I wanted to just leave it. I had been having a pretty bad week so far, but yesterday was one of the best days of my life. I wasn't going to let my family ruin the mood.

"Well, it's nice to know you still appreciate them." Miss Blackmar tried complimenting me.

"Well, there my parents. Not every family's perfect."

She gave me a nod and went back to eating.

"On a much lighter note," I started, "I'm feeling a lot better. Better than I have in a long time."

"That's good news!" Miss Blackmar smiled, and put some more pancakes onto her plate, "If I may ask, why exactly?"

"I just let out a little steam... a lot of steam."

"Did you go punching pillows again?" She teased me. I swear Riley's mother knew more about me than my own mother.

"Yeah. Did it for a while, and I calmed down after some time."

"That's good Zoey." Miss Blackmar looked up and over to the clock above the TV. It was already a little close to noon, and she sighed. "Riley!" She called out, "Breakfast!"

No more than a few moments later, I heard Ripley's door open and footsteps as she approached us. She was still wearing the clothes from yesterday.

"Good morning Riley." Miss Blackmar greeted her, "We're going to go tree shopping later. Care to join us?"

Riley sat down beside me and let out a long yawn before nodding and scratching the back of her head.

"Yeah, sure."

Riley was a little more awake by the time we got to the store. The sound of classic Christmas songs where being played on the overhead speakers. The store itself was decorated for Christmas, and thankfully not some other holiday like easter already. I always found it funny how stores would be selling Christmas trees during the Halloween season. Always too early. With it being Christmas Eve, people were flooding the store. Most likely, they were doing some last-minute Christmas shopping. I walked beside Riley, with her mother walking behind us. I was tempted to try and hold Riley's hand, but I knew if I did, Miss Blackmar would see. Knowing her, she would assume something and probably get excited and start telling everyone she knew.

"So what kind of tree are you two thinking of getting?" I asked.

"Nothing too big. Something that would fit in our home." Miss Blackmar responded, "Why don't you two go looking for decorations."

Riley gave her a nod and started leading me down another aisle. Once we were out of sight, I reached down and took Riley's hand, squeezing it gently. She gave me a smirk and the two of us walked up and down the isles, looking for something to put on the tree.

"Don't you have a few ornaments at home?"

"A few yeah." Riley shrugged, "Not a lot though."

"Alright then, what do you want to get?"

"Hmm?" Riley tilted her head, "Candy canes?"

"Sounds good." I helped Riley pick out a few before spotting a few different ornaments. Riley and I laughed and joked around the ornaments for some time, before finally finding the ones we wanted.

"This seems good?" Riley nodded, "Anything you want to get for the tree?"

"What about one of those custom ornaments?" I suggested.

"Custom ordainments?"

"Yeah, you know. Those little glass holograms without pictures inside them?" I wasn't sure if that's what they were exactly, but that's what I have seen.

"Huh, why not!"

"We might need your mom for that, so how about we head back?" It didn't take too long to find Miss Blackmar. She was finishing up with picking out a tree.

"Hey mum," Riley called out.

"Just in time, you two," she smirked, still looking down at the small tree. "I think I just found our tree." It was a small and short tree. Only going to about half my height. Nothing seriously big, but it would definitely fit in the apartment.

"Cool." I nodded, "We had the idea to get some custom ornaments of the three of us."

She turned to look at us.

"You mean those mini stained glass pictures?"

"Yeah, exactly." Riley nodded.

"I don't see why not." She smiled, "Let's do it."

The station that did custom ornaments was out in the mall's hallways. The three of us approached the machine and found a small line to stand in. It didn't take long. All they needed to do was take our photo in the machine and then another person would begin the holographic work in the station right beside it. It was supposedly a two-hour process to make them, so we would have had some time to get anything else done that we needed to. Just as it was our turn to step into the booth, Riley's mother leaned forward and whispered something into her ear.

"M- Mom!" Riley's face turned red as she stepped into the machine.

"You two go on and take on together. I'll do one by myself." Miss Blackmar explained.

"You sure you don't want to be in it?" I asked, tilting my head a bit.

"No, No. I want one for myself. You two should have one together. You are 'best friends' after all!" She said and closed the curtain behind us. The camera in front of us displayed an example of what we were supposed to be doing.

"What kind of picture do you want to take?"

"I dunno?" Riley shrugged, "A kiss?"

"A kiss?" I said with some shock. "Does she want me to...?"

"O- Or, maybe something goofy?" The machine had a small box at our feet full of junk props.

"Yeah. T- That works." I said nervously, putting something on. In the end, I had a large puffy hat and scarf around my neck. Riley had put on a bowlers hat and a similar scarf, although this one was more smooth. Once the two of us where read, I hit the big red button next to the camera. A countdown timer popped up and slowly started to go down from ten. I tried putting my arm around Riley and pulling her closer. She giggled and did the same to me, wrapping her arm around my back and holding my shoulder. The camera made it to three, and the two of us smiled as we were blinded by a bright flash of light.

I groaned and started to rub my eyes. Spot's blurred my vision and made it difficult for me to see. The image on the screen asked if we wanted to use the picture taken, before displaying it. It was simply the two of us, wearing dumb outfits, and looking like we were having fun. Riley hit 'Yes', and we took off the costumes.