the girl named winter

| 01 |

o n e
d a y
b e f o r e

"Merry christmas!"

I groan and hide my face in my arms on the table. "Why do you have to be so loud?" I mumble aloud.

"Cheer up, Winny!" Marck shouts beside me as he jumps up and down in his seat. "It's December 24!" he exclaims.

"And Christmas is only 15 hours ahead!" Dad adds as he takes a seat.

"Fourteen hours and thirty minutes," I murmur as I sit up straight. Taking my spoon, I dip it in my cereals.

"I wonder what Santa got me!" Marck says.

I narrow my eyes at him. "That's just Mom and Dad's gift to you, squirt."

A wooden spoon hits my skull.

I wince, rubbing the spot on my head.

Mom smiles at my discomfort with her chin held up high. "Don't spoil his excitement."

I pursue my lips and continue eating cereals instead.

That feeling when a holiday feels like an ordinary day.

It's like Christmas lost its sparks with me.

"Winter," Marck calls.

I raise an eyebrow at him, chewing my cereals.

"Remember when I dressed up as Spiderman and we trick-or-treated in the hospital to search for Santa?"

I almost choke on the table.

Dad laughs. "And I caught the both of you?"

You know, Superman's going to be mad at you for using someone from another comic book.

After drinking a glass of water, I wipe my mouth with the back of my hand. "Yeah I don't think we should be talking about that."

"We should!" Marck argues. "I think Santa's a girl."

"What made you think that, honey?" Mom asks him. She places a plate of cookies in front of me. "Winter, try this. It's freshly baked," she offers.

I take one and nearly die to heaven. I take another cookie.

Marck speaks while chewing with his mouth full. "Because a girl's name commonly ends with an a: Samantha, Veronica, Andrea, Thea -"

"Amanda." I grin.

The wooden spoon hits my skull again. "Don't bully him!" Mom shouts.

"Aw, I wasn't!" I push the spoon away. "I was just adding an evidence to his theory."

"Well stop it," she hisses at me before smiling back at the five-year-old blushing near me. "You were saying, Marck?"

"And if Santa was a guy with a large belly and a long beard, then he would've been named Saint."

I scoff. "That doesn't make any sen -"