A Merry Merry Christmas

Eleven

"Hey! You ready to go?" Jackie asked, greeting me outside of my house holding up a pair of ice skates. Christmas was in less than two weeks and I was more excited than an elf eating candy canes under a Christmas tree! Haha, see what I did there? I smiled and nodded, holding up a pair of ice skates as well. We were going ice skating for the day which was one of my favorite traditions to do during the holidays with Jackie. The rink was around the corner from my house, it was an outdoor place and I knew I was probably going to freeze but I didn't really mind it. I grabbed my coat and zipped it up, putting a beanie on my head as I shut the door and we made our way to rink. As we arrived, I plopped myself on a bench and laced my ice skates on. Jackie did the same as she tied her laces into a little bow then stood up, wobbling a little but catching her balance as we made our way to the ice. Christmas music filled the area as people skated around the rink at their own paces. Jackie and I personally loved skating as fast as we could, it was something we always did when we came skating during the holidays and it always came back to bite us in the butts. literally.

"Hey, Kendra, look!" Jackie said as she slowly came to a stop on the ice. She looked around for a moment then she smiled.

"What?" I asked, coming to a stop as well, following Jackie to the wall of the ice to balance myself. I looked around but couldn't see what Jackie saw. I turned to her and followed her eyes in the direction she was looking and I smiled the biggest smile.

"JOEY!" I let go of the wall and slid off the ice running to Joe with my arms held out to him for a hug. I wrapped my arms around him tightly and he picked me up, swinging me around, planting a kiss on my forehead.

"Jackie told Donnie and I ya'll were going skating so we figured we'd join you." He smiled with an arm wrapped around me as I snuggled closely for warmth.

"I kinda had a hunch Jackie may have had something to do with this." I laughed as Joe, Jackie, Donnie and I sat together on the bench again.

"What makes you think of such a thing?" Jackie gasped sarcastically. I laughed.

"I'll be right back, Kendra, gotta use the restroom." Joe said, excusing himself.

"I gotta go with him, I'll be back, Jackie." Donnie added, following Joe to the bathroom. Once we were alone, Jackie turned to me and smiled.

"boys, am I right?" She laughed. I smiled and chuckled. The Christmas music in the background then suddenly began to fade out as I heard a microphone being picked up.

"What's going on?" I asked. Jackie shrugged her shoulders and shook her head. I couldn't tell whether or not she was keeping something from me. The rink was completely quiet but people proceeded to skate around when suddenly I heard someone beginning to talk through the microphone.

"This thing on?" A familiar voice echoed through the microphone. I knew that voice all too well. Donnie.

"Wait... Is that..." Jackie stopped short.

"It is." I replied, finishing her sentence.

"What are they up to?" She asked.

"No idea, but I'm sure we're about to find out." I said with a smile. Jackie and I unlaced our skates and slid our shoes on, as we brought our attention to Joe and Donnie who were each holding a microphone in their hand. Standing behind Joe and Donnie, we saw Jordan, Jon and Danny holding microphones as well. Right then and there, I knew they were about to sing to us! Suddenly the rink went silent as Donnie put the microphone to his lips and began singing.

"Have a funky funky Christmas and a funky new year, I swear we got ourselves a party here
girls on the floor knows our posse at the door should I stop nah cool here's more of this song, a funky Christmas melody 'cause Jordan K. feels so Christmasy throw your hands in the air pause, kick the ballistics Santa Claus" Donnie sang, jumped, and energized the crowd like Jackie and I had ever seen and we were amazed! They were amazing!

----

"What'd you think?" Joe asked once they'd hopped off the stage and taken us to the coffee shop for hot chocolate.

"You guys were amazing! Definitely made my day, I can't thank you enough." I said with a giant smile spread across my face as I embraced Joe in a huge, warm hug. He smiled back and hugged me tightly, rocking me back and forth. I never thought Joe would seriously ever go through the trouble of putting on a show just for me in front of innocent ice skaters minding their own business, but it turns out he would and I'd do the same for him, but I can't sing if my life depended on it so I guess I'll just have to stick to something else.

----

It was late. Jackie and I were having our annual weekend sleepover. We were gathered in the living room of my house watching MTV music videos as we played a board games while we sat on our sleeping bags.

"I win again!" Jackie bragged doing a so-called victory dance in my face. For every game, sport or activity we did together, Jackie would always win and she'd always show off with this stupid victory dance she made up.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever, it's not like I didn't see it coming." I chuckled as I dramatically flipped the board over, messing up the game. Jackie laughed as she laid in her sleeping bag which coincidentally happened to be a new kids on the block sleeping bag.

"So... Wanna play a round of truth or dare..." Jackie asked. I turned to her with a smirk.

"Sure... Let's do this." I replied, with a devious smirk.

"I'll go first." Jackie stated.

"Alright." I agreed.

"Truth... Or dare?" Jackie asked. I thought about it for a moment but hesitated eventually making a decision. A bad one at that.

"Truth." I replied with a confident tone, being completely sure that Jackie wouldn't give me any kind of outrageous truth to reveal.

"What would you do, if I told you that Joey loves you?" My facial expression went completely blank for a second, trying to comprehend what I had just been told. Then I smiled the biggest I'd ever smiled in my life and I began to cry tears of joy.