22 - Snowball

It's Christmas. My. Very. First. Christmas. What?! Really? Yes, really. Well, it's not. It's the first snowy Christmas. John is awake bright and early, and that is how I'm up a short time later.

"Get up! Get up! It's Christmas, and it's snowing! Get up!" He's yelling and jumping around and screaming. I've never tapped into this side of him… Oh! Right, turtle mayhem at the psycho's. Honestly, I'm not in the mood. I pulled out an all nighter and thought I could manage through it. Normally, I do. And I did, right until John was mumbling things about how he was lonely, the fact that I was the one who wanted to settle into the arrangements. I told him no, he fell asleep, and… You can probably imagine where things went from there. So, I stayed up the entire time, falling asleep at the desk with barely a wink.

"No… no…" I say sluggish. "I did an all nighter…"

"But it's CHRISTMAS!" He throws a scarf at my face.

"John, stop!" I exclaim with as much as I could muster. Clarification - That's not much. It comes out as a horrible, lethargic yawn. I feel like I've been hit by a train that's stocked with sleeping pills. "I'll come later… Can I sleep?"

He takes the scarf back and wraps it around his neck, "I thought you didn't believe in sleep."

"Times change, John. I think I need--" In all honesty, think I just passed out.

[John's POV]

He doesn't move a muscle. Doesn't bat an eye. Is he really trying this hard to excuse himself from the best holiday of the year? I text the group, because, yes, it's important. No one can stop me. Oh, that's cool! Laf is tuning in from the other side of the world.

TheHomies

TwoPints - Alex isn't awake. I'm concerned…

CinnamonRoll - Check his pulse! Get him to the hospital!

TwoPints - No. It's Christmas! And he pulled an all nighter! :(

MetalDetector - What. The. Actual?!

CinnamonRoll - LANGUAGE!

MetalDetector - NO!

SinnamonRoll - Get him up already!

TwoPints - But he needs it! And he looks at peace for once...

TakingThemHorses - Awww ;)

TwoPints - Laf, no!

HidingThemHorses - Laf, yeah. Heck yeah.

TwoPints - I slapped him with a scarf, what else do I do?

CinnamonRoll - Wake him up gently, I guess??

HidingThemHorses - Freaking tackle him!

TakingThemHorses - Soothe him in French. It works for me…

SinnamonRoll - Wtf, Laf…

TakingThemHorses - It's true!! :(

TwoPints logged off the chat…

Sometimes it hurts to know that they just don't help. I look at him, breathing gentle and slow, face nuzzled into his pillow. Well, we can't have a snow day without him.

"Alex, it's Christmas. There are presents, and food, and snow!" I susurrate to him, ruffling his hair. He's facing me, but then he rolls himself over. Why does he want to be away from the world? What's so special about his dreams? I don't know what to do. He's breathing, so he's alive, I've tried being gentle, didn't work, Herc advises me to tackle him, but no way in hell am I doing that… I stick by his side for a little while, and then I hear this thundering, almost earthquake-like sound.

"Surprise, bitches! Y'all getting up right now!" Holy guacamole. Peggy's just drop-kicked our dorm door.

"Peggy, are you freaking kidding me?!"

She comes closer to Alex and I, "No shit. Now why didn't that wake him u--"

Welp, he's up. Sweaty and shaken. I think he's had another one of his dreams, but how the hell would I know? Peggy keeps her distance, giving me sheepish glances and I stand closer to him.

"Are you alright?" I ask him, squeezing his hand.

Alex motions for me to let go and he swivels himself on the chair a few times, rubbing his eyes, simultaneously cleaning his glasses. He hasn't quite gotten his bearings. He stands up, holding his hands in front of his face, squinting, examining them thoroughly. He looks down at his legs now and does the same.

"Let him be…" I mouth to Peggy. She nods.

He takes in the fact he's in his dorm room. He mustn't have been there before. I guide him over to the open window, sending in a cold draught. "What do you see?" I say, beaming, hoping he recognises. He just holds his hand out, face brimming with ecstasy. He giggles nervously to himself. I have no idea what he's finding, seeing, doing, hallucinating even. I sit on my swivel chair and by the time I turn back, Peggy's made her departure, not even bothering to fix the door she ruined.

"Look, John!" He speaks up all of a sudden, "I want to show you something." I hurry over to him. "See? She's right there! Look, John! It's my mother!" He's pointing and waving his hand to a vacant portion of the sky. "Look, she's so happy! And smiling! Aw, she's holding my hand…" He grabs the air. I shake him swiftly around and shut the window. "What the hell, John?!" He spits.

"You're hallucinating. Your mother, she--"

"I know. She died. But she's right there! I don't know how, but I wanna talk to her. Give her to me John! I lost her, and now she's found." The veins in his eyes are red and bulging and he's shaking me, pleading for it.

"Give me some time. I need to work this out." I pull out my phone once again. Alex is off in a daze, looking back and forth between me and the windowsill, doing grabby hands.

TheHomies

TwoPints - I found out about Alex. It's Code H guys.

MetalDetector - Code H?!?!

TwoPints - Yes. What did we rehearse? I've forgotten!!

CinnamonRoll - Ok. Here's the plan. Barrage him with snowballs.

SinnamonRoll - Yes. Drag him down here. We don't care how much he resists, we just need him to snap out of his trance.

HidingThemHorses - Ooh, sounds fun. We'll make it the next World War.

TwoPints - Herc, no!

TakingThemHorses - Herc, yeah. Heck yeah.

MetalDetector - You two are such parrots! 😡

TakingThemHorses - ;)

HidingThemHorses - ;)

TwoPints - I'll be on it. I'll need some help tho-

MetalDetector - On it.

TwoPints - Peggy, no!

Dammit. By the time I had written that message, she was already here. She must've stuck outside, waiting for this moment.

"Ok, how are we doing this?" She rushes in in a panic.

"I can still hear you, you know…" Alex slumps down, face on the window now.

"Yes! Well, come outside! There's a surprise for you!" Her face is shivering but otherwise full of hope. Nothing can stop her from getting what she wants.

"Fine, but just warning you, I hate surprises…" He rubs his eyes, quickly gets himself changed into, thank goodness, appropriate gear for the weather and follows her. I linger on from behind.

TheHomies

TwoPints - On our way down, act natural.

SinnamonRoll - Got it.

It takes him a while to travel down the stairs but we arrive down to the snowy parkland eventually. Everyone is arranged in a circle, smiling and gloved. Alex has energised himself because the cold has knocked some sense into him.

"What is this?" He questions me, lips quivering.

"We're just having some fun. Care to join us?" Just as I finish, Herc has launched a medium sized ball that hits him square in the face. Everyone tears up laughing, including him.

"Now what do I do?"

[Alex's POV]

"We're just having some fun." John states, "Care to join us?" He's just finishing the sentence and I'm just about to answer when Herc launches a massive white thing at my face. It hurts for a period of time, but as the snow crashes it softens and feels cool, and all of a sudden I'm glad I made it.

"Now what do I do?" I ask him. They are all shell-shocked.

"You've never had a snowball fight before?!" Angelica exclaims.

"Yeah. Well…" I'm trying to think on my feet for an excuse but nothing's coming up. "Yeah."

Eliza comes in now like the smooth awesome girl she is, "You make a massive snowball," She does so, and at supersonic speed. It must be easy, then. "And you throw it at someone!" Instead of me, she supercharges it back at Herc, and we all fall into that state of peeling laughter once more.

"Ok. Easy!" I don't make any massive ones, because I'm obviously not skilled in the art, but I make several small ones and shoot them like ballistic missiles left right and centre. One hits Angelica, another Eliza and the last to Peggy! Score! I hit all the Schuylers! I wonder what could beat that…

"Let's go!" John spaces himself between me and Peggy, and within seconds, chaos ensues. It's a rapid-fire Nerf battle except our weapons are snowballs and targets are each other. After a good while, I am the person with the most hits and Eliza is the person with the least. She's funny to play with, and surprisingly nimble too. John was just as crazy as I was beginning, but then he stopped, asking for a break, so we gave it to him. We all took breaks for that matter, talking about the chilly weather and the abnormalities and comparisons between Nevis and New York. They were drastic, to say the least. And out of nowhere, he was as fast as a turret gun, slamming us and the parklands to smithereens! I guess you could say we were crazy, all in our own way. Soon enough, the morning became too bitter, and we had already spent a quarter of our Christmas revelling in the snow, so things took a turn when we all went inside, Herc and Peggy preparing some last-minute Christmas snacks, and everyone turning heads to their assorted corners to grab gifts, before returning to our dorm.

"Who's up for eggnog and gingerbreads?" Herc questions, him and Peggy holding a tray of each between them. We all responded in a cheerful chorus. They smile and nod their heads with glee as we do.

"Guess who made which?" Peggy asks as the pair pass them around, taking off their aprons which have been dribbled with various cooking mixtures.

We all decided to play along, examining the food well before eating it.

"I say that Herc did the eggnog and Peggy made the gingerbread biscuits." Laf states, the two chefs of the night glancing around with straight poker faces.

"I would say the other way round." Angelica voices. It was a good game they made up, because we all had our opinions voiced, but soon enough the food had been neglected almost to the point of despair.

"Alright, eat the food before we have to make more!" Herc growls, and we all sit cozy around the heaters. "I made the gingerbread, Pegs made the eggnog..."

"How obvious was that?!" I tease, taking a careful look at my practically destroyed biscuit before popping it in my mouth with sweet satisfaction.

"Extremely!" Angelica grins, and since she is right opposite me, we share a high-five.

The next hour goes pretty well, a few upset stomachs here and there, courtesy of Hercules, mostly, and we curl up on our phones and John fires up the classic Christmas movie, 'Home Alone'. Obviously, everything trivial is turned into a heated debate, something which all of us enjoy partaking in.

"Home Alone is the best Christmas movie by far!" Eliza starts as the title scene commences, giggling a little at the thought.

"No, it's A Christmas Carol..." Burr pops in unexpectedly.

"And why's that?" Laf raises an eyebrow from Herc's phone. He's clearly unimpressed with Burr's sudden charades.

"Because there's meaning!" He frowns and plops in the empty space of our circle. He spots the cookies in the centre of our setup and his eyes grow wide with hunger and I swear I see him salivating a bit. "Can I have one?" He wipes his mouth before asking politely, making eye contact with everyone to find the baker.

"Sure..." Herc raises a hand, and now Burr's involved. Can't say I'm happy, but it's Christmas, so I let it slide. He shares stories from the past months, like how he's managed to get himself a girlfriend.

"Ooh!" Peggy leans in closer. Of course, she's the metal detector, "Now what's her name?" She smirks.

"Her name is Theodosia..." He blushes at the mere mention.

"Is she... pretty?"

"Personal preference." He huffs, opening up a picture on his phone. "Here, take a look." He passes it to Peggy first.

"Nice one!" She smiles at Burr, and he turns away in sheer embarrassment, munching on the sweet to save himself. Eventually his phone makes it around to me and as always, I make a thorough examination. She is quite good looking, black curly hair down to her shoulders, light chocolate skin, hazel eyes and not much makeup. Ok, nice overall. I pass it to Angelica for her and the Schuylers to admire before it cruises back onto the owner, who is sitting next to Peggy, the better baker of the pair. Sorry, Herc, but it's far too obvious. The surroundings grow darker with every passing star streaked across the sky's canvas and for aesthetic reasons, Eliza opted to utilise the many scented candles she had stocked to create an ongoing Christmas tradition, firmly set in this year's roots. The presents are dealt around to our group par Burr, since he was never involved, and he ended up leaving as we started.

"We'll start with... Angelica!" John pulls the name out of one of his hats. "Merry Christmas." He handed over his gift. She opened with a look of almost greed and hands of haste.

"Oh, my God, John, that's beautiful!" She is staring at the vibrant eyeshadow palette resting in her hands, marvelling it from every angle. Next comes the sisters' gifts, a stationery kit and a small plush pillow. I hand her my gift next. She feels the object in her hands. "It's soft..." She mutters. Christmas is the best time to evoke curiosity. It's a bright pink sweater labelled 'Boss ass bitch', long and fluffy.

"Merry Christmas." I let a smile form on my face. It feels normal to smile, now more than ever.

"Oh..." She stares at the bold-fonted inscription, wide-eyed. She chuckles like no one's watching and I feel a wave of excitement coursing through my veins. Do you wanna know why? It's because after Angelica's pleasure, I get to experience my own.

"Merry Christmas!" They all greet one after another, passing me boxes and packages of varied sizes, wrapping papers and colours. I open Herc's gift first, a notebook and a few, I would like to say, hundred pens. Sad. There's only three there. Angelica gifted me one of those keyboard skins, a nice monotone one, Eliza got me a computer mouse which I desperately needed (I broke it, that's all you need to know...) and Peggy gave me some fluffy novelty from Target or something, but it's still thoughtful. Next was John's present.

"Do you mind... coming outside?" He spoke with a quietness I had never heard from him. I nodded and followed suit. I'm glad everyone respected that. They left the door ajar, but not by much. We couldn't be seen. Not properly, anyway. He pulled me close, out of sight. "Lexi," He exhaled bigger than ever, "I didn't know what to get you..." I felt my face drooping with some kind of loss. Surely my boyfriend would find me something? "But I know you don't like Christmas because of the past and you don't enjoy being smothered and all that, so I thought..."

"What?" I inquired, "What?" My breath was rapid and paced, his was slow, as if it was being drained out of him, and no offense, a tad unhygienic.

"To give you the gift of acknowledgement. The gift of being recognised for who you are. The gift of being loved. Sound good?" He gulped the sweat down and squinted with beady eyes. His heart was practically beating out of his chest.

"John..." I gripped his hand, "That's the best gift I could ever ask for..." I kept looking up between my hands clasped onto his and his face which had been dialling itself down, preparing for pleasure. "God, I don't even think I deserve anywhere near as much as I have right now…"

"Alex, you deserve the world! It's been so cruel to you, I dunno! You deserve the sun!"

"Well, then I'll burn myself to a crisp!" I sob-laughed. It came out of nowhere, but I believe that they were happy tears. More than that. Overwhelming, excited tears.

"We should probably head back in--" God, I knew it. I freaking knew it when he said that. Damn, it was consuming, as if all the life was being sucked out of me, but the more it lasted, the more my life was being taken, and being merged with his. We ended up taking ourselves away, breathless. "Stay there. I have your present." I duck back inside, receiving a barrage of speech, coming from all corners of the room. No one was left out of it, and there was no time to respond. I grabbed the box, which unfortunately, couldn't be wrapped. It rattled in my hands and made a few noises. I shushed it and it comprehended. I grinned, holding the enclosure behind my back.

"Lozzi, Merry Christmas!" I thrust the gift in front of me and handed it to him like it was a game of hot potato. He was speechless, but his gaze on the thing gave it all away.

"It's. A. Freaking. Baby. Turtle! Lexi, what in the name of Mike made you buy this?!"

"We'll have to get away from the troop to tell you that one." I was overcome with the giggles. We popped back inside and partook in the rest of the celebration, gift giving and merrymaking until the night grew too dark to see much and the eggnogs were overloading our friend, Herc there. We said no alcohol, so he loaded on the only thing which included it.

"Bye…" We waved to them all as they yawned and dawdled back to their separate quarters. We managed to knock out the clean up pretty quickly, and that gave us all the time in the world.

"So how did you get that turtle?" His hands are wrapped around my neck.

"Well, psycho Beverly told us that it was dying in there, needed a better home, I mean of course it'd be dying in there but…"

"Damn it! The poor turtle…" He kissed me as he spoke. "Thank you."

"You've yet to name it!"

"No time for that…" We kissed and moaned until we were overcome by sleep. I've gotta say, my Christmas couldn't have turned out better.