Christmas at the Lang's: Book Four

9

It was just under half an hour later that Loki and Scott (or just Scott) finished setting the table, just in time for Maggie and Cassie to finish dinner. Scott was getting excited and hyper and angry all at the same time making sure everything went perfectly in the middle of the table, so Loki wisely left the room to tell everyone dinner was served.

To be fair though, Scott did actually calm down a lot during dinner. He forgot all about everything being perfect and just pulled lots of super-strong crackers with everyone (there was a lot of cracker-pulling, but everyone struggled with them except Loki and the cloak, the latter apparently being able to pull crackers despite having no hands). It might've been technically the first Christmas dinner for five years, but it only felt like a year to him. Only last year, there had been less people and Cassie had been a lot smaller.

The most miraculous thing that happened during the entire dinner was that, when Hank had pulled one of the crackers, he had actually not complained about wearing the flimsy paper hat that came with it. As in, he hadn't resisted that much when the cloak (which was balancing a flimsy crown on its collar) had forced it on his head. That being said, Scott had a sneaking suspicion he was a little wary of the cloak, with it being... unusual. But he wasn't complaining – now Scrooge was getting properly into the Christmas spirit.

So nice food was eaten, a bit of early alcohol was drank, crap cracker jokes were told, and random conversations were had. Cassie and Maggie had outdone themselves with the meal, and no one had a bad word to say about it.

In short, it was the best Christmas dinner Scott had ever had, and he'd had plenty. Maybe it was the food, maybe it was the people, maybe it was the feeling of being squished between Hope and Loki at the table, maybe it was just him having drank a little bit too much champagne for the early afternoon, but it was by far his favourite Christmas meal. Ever. E-V-E-R.

Everyone was so relaxed yet so hyper at the same time, and the crackers were loud. Like, loud, loud. They'd definitely been worth investing in.

So there they were, the nine of them, all with stupid Christmas jumpers and stupid Christmas paper hats, telling stupid jokes and watching a stupid hyper cloak fly around the room and occasionally attack them with hugs. Good times, good times.

And now dinner was over, it was time for games.

"OK then guys," Scott said, and everyone went quiet to listen to him. "Who's ready for some games?"

"I think we should do Just Dance," Cassie smirked, slightly evilly. Scott knew why – that girl was a total boss at Just Dance, and she knew every dance off by heart. Scott was not a dancer, and he was always totally thrashed by Cassie.

Before he could dispute the idea, the most unlikely person agreed to this. "I'm totally up for Just Dance," Stephen said. Everyone stared at him, silent. Scott's family were all like Scott and had seen Cassie's moves. Stephen had no idea what he was letting himself in for.

"Cool!" smiled Cassie. "Finally, someone who will agree to go against me! She looked around to Stephen's other side at Loki. "What about you Loki? You wanna be Player Three?"

"I'll pass," Loki said. This surprised Scott a little – this guy wasn't normally one to back down from a challenge.

"Too scared to go up against us, Cassie," Stephen said, shaking his head. The others laughed a little.

"Nah, I just don't want to humiliate you both," Loki countered.

"Burn," said Scott and Cassie at the same time.

"We need to do group karaoke," Janet suggested. "All of us taking turns to do a line or something."

"Hell yes!" shouted Scott enthusiastically, not caring how loud he was being. "I'm amazing at karaoke!"