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THE FOLLOWING MORNING IS SPENT OPENING PRESENTS AND EVERYONE WISHING EACH OTHER A MERRY CHRISTMAS. Pietro and Linh had recorded and taken photos to send the teens after. There had been so many presents under the Christmas tree. The group had really outdone themselves this year.
Jak had texted his friends earlier thanking them for all the gifts they had sent and that he had a severe case of FOMO, to which Theodore yelled at him in the group chat—again—saying he should have dropped everything and booked a flight to Italy to spend time with everybody. Jak had proceeded to explain that the reason for not being able to come to Italy for Christmas—which, mind you, it was the same excuse the past however many years—was because he had other plans. Sure, maybe he just didn't want to leave his family but they all knew his parents were willing to let him go have fun with his friends, so nobody actually knows why Jak never goes. Because during the racing season, he's obviously out of the States for most of the year, so none of what he was saying ever made sense to them.
And things still aren't working in Theodore's favor.
Later that morning, he was downstairs, locating where each of his friends were before heading into the kitchen. Dino, Paul, and Kimi are sitting on the couch playing Minecraft on Theodore's Xbox. Jianna and Delilah are outside helping Pietro and Linh make sure the plants in the garden didn't freeze as it was currently snowing outside. Annika and Oliver are in the kitchen. They're in the kitchen. He worries his bottom lip between his teeth as he heads over to the refrigerator and opens it, grabbing a bottle of apple juice and screwing the cap off.
Annika and Oliver greet him. Theodore is silent as he waves, before turning around and heading to the living room. He probably looks like an idiot right now as he's speed walking over there. He sits on the couch in the remaining seat, wishing he could sink into the depths of the couch cushions and never return.
"You okay, Teddy?" Dino glances at him, brows knitted together with concern.
"Yeah. Fine." Theodore replies bluntly, taking a swig of his apple juice. He looks up at the TV and decides to distract himself by watching the boys play. Paul keeps screaming whenever hostile mobs kept chasing him—he kept on dying and losing his items, but luckily for him, Kimi and Dino found his location and would retrieve his stuff. Kimi proceeds to go explore every cave he finds, hoping to find much more valuable resources. Dino mainly focused on building a base, specifically one that kept the mobs out. Theodore doesn't know how long the three have been playing, but they already had some diamond gear, so...
Theodore gets up after a few minutes and heads back into the kitchen to throw away the now empty bottle of apple juice. Annika and Oliver are now at the dining table. Annika's eating her breakfast and Oliver is drinking a Red Bull. They're talking about something and Theodore can't help but notice the way Oliver's face lights up.
