Meanwhile...
"I stubbed my toe." Koi tells Riley after, well, stubbing his toe.
"Then you should've asked Santa Claus for an ice pack." Riley responds, pouring everyone some Lucky Charms. Koi sticks his tongue out at Riley and Eden laughs. They all eat their cereal quickly, excited to uncover the colorful gifts under the tree. Well, they're not all colorful. Riley decided that he would be environmentally friendly and wrapped the presents in newspaper. Eden and Koi wrapped their presents in normal shiny wrapping paper, like normal people.
After finishing their cereal, Eden and Koi think they can finally open their presents, but Riley insists they clean their dishes. Both younger siblings are just about done with their older superior bossing them around. So, they do clean their dishes but they don't put them away, a small rebellion.
Eden and Koi make it quickly to the tree and Riley follows, seemingly slower than molasses. He does eventually make it to the tree and sits cross legged next to Koi, who leans his head on Riley's knee.
"OKAY! I have to open the smallest one first, and that is..." Eden grabs the smallest package of the two addressed to her, the package is barely more than 2D and is a rectangle."This one is from Rile- Santa, " Eden carefully and neatly removes the newspaper.
"Holy crap, are these..." Eden's voice trails off, stunned. So, Riley finishes the sentence for her.
"Three tickets to Hadestown on Broadway? Yes, yes they are." Riley announces. Eden wraps her arms around him and hugs him for a long, sweet moment, until Riley can no longer breathe and Eden has to back away.
The gift from Koi was a large box of makeup and a card about how she's the best older sister, with some musical theatre references. They move on to Koi.
Koi studies the two gifts in front of him for a moment, before deciding on a large rectangular gift, wrapped in shiny blue paper, meaning it's from Eden. He rips the paper open with both hands and is met with a box, on the front of the box however, is a picture of a keyboard. Koi jumps up into the air and does this little dance, and for the first time in a long time, Koi feels full of energy and hope. This keyboard has given him more to do than just bother the Grahams every night.
"Oh my god! Thank you Eden! Thank you, Thank you, Thank you, Thank you!" Koi squeals.
Once he calms down, he moves on the newspaper covered gift. His gift from 'Santa' is a light blue Polaroid camera, the case for the camera is adorned in many different colorful drawings, obviously done by Riley. Now, it's Riley's turn.
Before him, stands one gift. One gift in a perfect cube shape. He opens the shiny blue wrapping paper and is met with a box, each side has a different colored paper. Riley carefully opens the box, scared that he'll rip the pretty paper and a bunch of photos, drawings, and notes cover the sides of the box, in the middle there's a small box, one that's a light brown. Riley carefully opens the box and there's a silver necklace with a locket on the delicate chain. He lifts the necklace up and opens it, inside, there's a picture of Koi on the left side, the picture isn't from too long around, probably that past spring, and the other picture is of Eden when she was about 10, in her first show, as a who from whoville in Seussical.
Riley holds the locket to his chest and Eden and Koi give each other a thumbs up, having worked hard to earn money for the necklace, and worked hard together to make the box.
"You guys are the best siblings in the world." Riley finally says.
"We know." Eden responds.
