Chiles's Notebook: One Shot series

Purple Snowman

Chapa and Miles argue over Christmas ornaments.

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"That doesn't match the rest of the ornaments!" Miles argued showing Chapa the tree. "Does it matter? and besides I think the tree could use a little more pizazz," Chapa dangled the small purple snowman with reindeer ears in front of him. Ray had let them decorate the Christmas tree this year and yet again an argument had broken out between them. Bose was still wrapping gifts, Mika was helping schwoz put up the final decors around the man's nest and Ray was outside in the cold dark night setting up lights because he was determined to break the record for the brightest Christmas lights in swellview; which Danny Chest always won. 

Everything was fine at first, they decorated the tree with simple gold, red and white ornaments. They even set them up in some sort of pattern. But they started fighting when Chapa had brought out her tacky decor and insisted they used it. Miles couldn't figure out for the life of him why she had chosen that out of literally anything else. 

"We'll add some sparkle then, but we are NOT putting that on the tree," He voiced. 

Chapa smirked, "Oh yeah?" What's stopping me?" She teasingly tip-toed and hung it on the tree anyways replacing another one of the ornaments tossing it to the side. 

"YOU MONSTER," Miles yelled pointing at her. Chapa threw on a fake pout. She didn't understand what the big deal was, it was for decoration. Besides, Chapa wanted her snowman to be on the tree, the tree she would be spending Christmas under for the first time in a long time. Miles stood his ground and snatched it off. "Dude, what gives?!" She threw her arms up. The others started watching the two bicker. Nothing new. Chapa tried to snatch it back but he held onto it tightly. "How about you both just let go"? Mika tried to step in. "NEVER!" They both snapped playing tug of war with it. 

"GIVE IT TO ME," Chapa zapped his leg,

"OUCH," Miles cried out. He could have just teleported away with it but that would have to mean letting go of it with just one arm and he didn't think Chapa would hesitate from a moment to use that to her advantage.

Just when things were starting to get rough, their hands slipped and the snowman fell to the ground and broke its head off. Bose dramatically gasped. 

Chapa stepped forward and looked at the snowman teary-eyed. What have I done? she thought. It was broken.  She wanted to reach out and pick it up but she couldn't. The damage was done. Another part of her thrown away. She felt her cheeks getting hot, her throat starts to ache, and her fingers tremble. She could feel everyone staring at her. She looked at her teammates and saw their stares, she quickly ran out of the man's nest before anyone could see her shed a tear, they'd think she was being dramatic over a small decoration but it was so much more.

Once Chapa left Mika bend down to pick up the snowman and its head. "Vhat vas that about?" Schwoz asked putting his hands on his hips.

"No idea..." Miles trailed off.

The room grew silent for a moment."Well, who wants hot chocolate huh!" Ray happily broke the silence rubbing his hands together. Mika and Miles looked at him as if saying 'not the time'. "I do!" Bose chimed in. They both walked off into the other room leaving the 3 of them.

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Miles felt horrible for what had happened. Chapa had never looked so upset. He didn't get it, it was such a small thing to make a fuss about. When Chapa hadn't come back after a few he grabbed his jacket and went to go look for her. Luckily, she hadn't actually gone anywhere, she sat on the steps outside the door. Her head was down, her shoulders were shrugged, she was rubbing her finger and sniffling back cries.

Miles sadly looked at her. She hadn't felt his presence so when he sat down next to her she quickly wiped her tears and said, "What? I'm not upset! leave me alone, dork,".  "Look, I'm sorry, I didn't mean for it to get damaged," He apologized. But it didn't matter, it was already broken. "It's whatever I don't care," She hissed. Oh, but she did care, how she cared. Miles gave her that 'sure you don't' look. "Okay fine so what if I do? I just really liked that snowman," she claimed. Miles huffed, "What was so special about it anyway," He tried to playfully bump his shoulder into hers. 

She wanted to say she didn't remember but it would have been an insult to its memory. Yet she didn't want to have to explain it, she thought It'd be childish and slightly embarrassing. Then again this was Miles she was talking to, she knew she could tell him without feeling that way. Chapa smiled remembering the story behind the snowman. 

"It was the first-ever Christmas ornament my parents let me pick out. It was actually white at first with a black top hat and when we got home i decided i didn't like it. So my mom suggested i made it my own. Dad helped me paint it and broke off the top hat so i could choose its headwear. I ripped off the antlers from one of my lego reindeers and Dad super glued it on for me. To me, it was the best darn-looking thing in the world," Chapa explained.

"You see my parents we're obsessed with making our Christmas tree look as crazy as possible. We put all sorts of wacky and crazy stuff on it just to see how much the tree could take, and i know what your thinking, must have looked horrendous," She laughed on the last part turning to Miles and he let out a chuckle listening to her go on. "But it wasn't, once we added all the lights and star on top, it was the most beautiful thing 7-year-old me had seen. So every year after that i would open my gifts right under my snowman with my parents," Chapa started to sound dejected.

 "As the years started to go by my parents started to fight, almost every day but whenever it was Christmas time it felt like i was 7 again because they would put all their differences aside, join me under my purple snowman and we were this perfect happy family again," She wiped a tear from her face, voice trembling as she told the story and Miles sat down and listened. "But a couple of Chrismas's ago they wanted to stop decorating the tree. My parents had even stopped talking to each other all at once actually. After that, we didn't decorate for the holidays again. So before all of this," Pointed around the place referring to the team.

" It didn't even feel like Christmas anymore. When Christmas came around again i sat alone in my room watching videos of happier Christmas's on my phone hugging my purple snowman because that's the only thing that gave me joy and it was still the only thing that gave me joy when my phone was stolen," She explained. "There you have it, that's the big deal," She shrugged wiping more tears off her face.

Miles dropped his head wanting to punch himself. He shouldn't have been such a jerk about it. Chapa, after hiding the snowman away all those years because it was a constant reminder, hoped that this year she could hang it on the man's nest tree to symbolize a new beginning with her new family, now she just felt stupid. "You have every right to zap me into oblivion," Miles sighed. Chapa let out a genuine laugh. She moved closer to him, " Nah, then who's gonna keep me sane," She softly smiled in a way saying 'i forgive you'.

 Miles was glad to see her smile again. He had also realized that she wasn't wearing a jacket and she was starting to shiver. He took off his jacket and wrapped it around her. Chapa blushed at the thought. "You know, no matter how much we tend to fight, you'll always have someone here to share Christmas with," he still held onto the jacket wrapped around her. Chapa didn't say anything but instead beamed and fixed her position so she could lean her head on his shoulder. Miles placed his head on hers and Chapa took his hand enjoying the comfort. Maybe Christmas wasn't ruined after all.

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The rest of the team watched the two from behind the screen doors gushing at the moment. Mika was on her way to surprise Chapa with the snowman she had fixed in hopes of making her feel better but then she caught the two in an intense moment and urged for the boys to come see for themselves.

 "Told ya so," Mika placed her palm out and the boys started paying her up.