A flaming warrior

Chapter 33 Christmas

"Rachel! Rachel!" Eva kept yelling my name. "What? It's so early," I said, waking up groggy. "It's Christmas, you idiot. Wake up," Eva said, shaking me lightly. "Oh. Well, let's go downstairs then," I said, still sleepy but excited to see the gifts. "Merry Christmas, sleepy," Chloe said, laughing. "God, I'm so tired," I said, sitting down at the tree. "Well, after this, we're all going back to sleep anyway," Jacqueline said. "Well, let me go first with my gifts," Eva said, handing over the gifts she had gotten for us. "Hey. Anyone else sleepy?" Chris asked, walking in with Tyler, Samantha, Leona, and Miriam. Eva then gave them gifts as well. I opened my big gift and was shocked. "E...Eva, this is a whole ass computer." I said, looking at the beautiful pink computer with its expensive parts. Chloe got two drawing tablets: one was a big pad, and the other had a screen. She even got Chloe a computer, too. She got us all the computers. "Eva, how much did you spend?" Chris asked. "Nothing. The person gave them all to me for free." Eva said happily. We then all gave each other gifts and were very happy. There wasn't much we all asked for, really, but everything we got was so heartwarming. "This was...oh." We all noticed Eva was in a deep sleep. "All that excitement was over. Now she's all tired," Miriam said, giggling. "Well, let's all go to sleep. We got clothes, different country snacks and food, and electronics, so let's get sleep and be excited more when we wake up." I said, picking up Eva. Everyone left, and Chloe and Jacqueline went upstairs to go back to sleep while I put Eva to bed. "Did I do good?" Eva asked. "With the gift? You did," I said. Eva started making happy noises before snoring. "Sleep well, sister," I said, closing her door, going to my room, and going back to sleep.

"Meow. Wake up, sleepy," Miriam said, waking me up. "What time is it?" I asked. "12pm," Miriam told me. "Oh shit, I have to get ready," I said, jumping out the bed and getting ready to take a shower. "You got an hour and a half left, but I guess no one likes getting ready at the last second," Miriam said, becoming a cat loaf on my bed, purring. I finally finished showering and changed into my casual clothes. "Enjoy your shower?" Miriam said, still loafing on my bed. "Yes, I did. Why are you still in here?" I asked, petting her. "That's why. You had to pay the head pat tax. Now I'm off to sleep until 1pm," Miriam said, going back downstairs. "I'm here, I'm here," I said, coming downstairs and seeing everyone set up the table and Chris and Samantha cooking. "Good morning, dear," Chris said to me. "Hey, Mom," Samantha said, almost burning herself, trying to pick up a spoon. I went to help with the cooking. Tyler, Eva, and Chloe set up more of the tables, and Leona and Jacqueline helped put food on the table as it was being prepared, leaving it on hot plates. "Honey ham, Macaroni and cheese, cornbread, rontini pasta, devil eggs, candy yams, blueberry muffins. Good job, dear," Chris said to Samantha, the two high-fiving and being happy. "Meow," Miriam started making sad meows. "What's wrong?" Leona asked. "Feel useless," Miriam said, coming out her cat form looking sad. "Oh! Can you go get everyone? We sadly have so many people, but you can get everyone and force them to show up so no one is late like last year," Leona said, looking happy. "Okay! Ummm, got a list?" She asked. Eva giggled and sent Miriam a list to her phone so Miriam wouldn't forget.

"We're here and hopefully just in time, too," Soma said, coming in with Kato. "We made udon, soda, sakiyaki, unagi no kabayaki, mochi, dango, a Japanese-themed cake, sakura nabe nakae," Kato said. "Good lord, this is so much food," Chloe said. "Good thing the dinner room is huge 'cause...fuck." I said, looking at all this food. "Maybe we should tell everyone else not to bring food," Tyler suggested. "I think everyone else is just bringing one thing...I hope," Chloe said, laughing. After a few more minutes, Miriam showed up to bring everyone. "I did good," Miriam said, happy going back into her cat form purring. "Oh goodness, if I knew we were going to have this much food, I wouldn't have brought anything. Well, I brought BBQ ribs," Ophelia said as Irene tried to sneakily eat a piece of BBQ rib. "Well, we left our food at home. But if we need more, we will bring it over later," Dad said, walking in with Mom. "You all don't mind if I bring this cutie, do you?" Sashi said, walking in with a cute little wolf puppy in tow. "You two have kids?" Eva asked. "No. That's a wolf pup she found," Tuya said, blushing. Our puppy has immediately started making friends with the wolf and getting along with it. We all began to eat and spend time together, enjoying this Christmas dinner.

After we all ate, we noticed the weather changed. "It's snowing!" Eva said, running out the door excitedly. We all rushed out to see the snow and marvel at how much had piled up on the ground. We all started playing in the snow, engaging in snowball fights, building a giant snowman, and making snow angels. "Hey! Sorry, we're late. It was a lot that needed to be done," Trio said, flying down with Evie, who threw a snowball at Eva, causing another snowball fight to begin with all of us. We spent all day doing this and being inside, eating a lot, which a lot of us did too, especially me.

At 6, everyone left, leaving just Eva, Chloe, and Jacqueline. Eva was still eating dessert even though she could barely stay awake and eat more. "Eva, you're fat," I said to her. "Ugh...cake...good," Eva passed out. "Food coma," Chloe said, laughing. The puppy then got on the table and ate the rest of the cake. "Quick little thing he is," Jacqueline said as the puppy started wagging his tail but also looked very tired. "Come on you to sleep you go," Jacqueline said, picking up the puppy and bringing it to its bed. "Well, what do we do now?" Chloe asked. "Group picture!" Eva yelled out. "But we would have to get everyone again," I told her. "I meant drawing," Eva said. "Oh well, I can do that, but that would leave you all nothing," Chloe told us. "That's why we're drawing, too," Eva said proudly. "Ummm, Eva, I can't draw," I told her. "You know how a pencil works, right? Then you can do your best," Eva said, patting my back while going upstairs with Chloe. I just rolled my eyes and went upstairs."So what am I doing?" I asked. "You draw Chloe, I'll draw you, and Chloe will draw me," Eva said, giving me a pencil and paper. "This is going to look horrible, but okay, here we go," I said, starting to draw. We kept drawing and drawing to the point that my hand was hurting so much. We then shared our drawings with each other, and the two seemed to really like my drawing. "You may want to ice your hand. Eva had us drawing for 4 hours now," Chloe said, giggling, making me an ice pack.