The GATE Academy

Christmas

"Are we finished here?" I questioned Faith as she finished decorating a batch of Christmas cookies. She placed the bag of bright green icing down and looked up at me. "We still have one more hour before we can leave." She stuck out her tongue and handed me the tray of cookies.

   For the past five hours, Shizuo, Faith, Mizu, Iris, Kane, Opal, and I were dressed as elves. We had to complete a request that involved playing the roles of elves at a festival known as Winter Wonderland.

I carried the warm, metal tray out of the kitchen and towards Santa's village. Multiple tables were set up and occupied by young children. Smiles were plastered on their faces as I approached. Santa sat in his chair occupied by the line of little children wanting to tell him what they want for Christmas.

  "The cookies are ready." I said with a smile. I'm not the most enthusiastic person, so this kind of job was a challenge. The cheers coming from the children were loud. They got even more excited when I placed the tray in front of them. "Remember to be good and only take one."

  I then left to meet up with my friends. It took a few minutes to reach the area they were all occupying, but when I did I was more relaxed. I lowered myself onto a bench, looking up at Shizuo who was standing next to Faith. They were actually the only two there at the moment.

   "You know, real elves could have done this job. I'm not sure about you, but I don't think I resemble an elf." I said, flicking my black ears and tail up a bit.

  Shizuo chuckled, looking at me. "Well, you're not wrong. Out of all of us, you stand out." Faith approached me and sat beside me, a smile present. "You never know, maybe there are Neko elves out there."

I looked at her, laughing a bit. "If I ever find one i'll be sure to tell you that you were right."

"Have you seen the others?" Shizuo asked, taking a seat on the other side of Faith. Conveniently, the others approached right as Shizuo finished speaking.

  "We can leave now, right?" Mizu asked, crossing his arms. He had an unamused look plastered on his face. "Yeah, it's about that time." Shizuo said, standing.

We all walked toward the parking lot. Shizuo had just arrived from collecting our reward. "We're still having that Christmas party later, right?" Shizuo asked, walking next to Faith with an arm wrapped around her. "Yeah, and didn't we plan to use some of our reward to do that secret santa thing?"

My question was then answered by Mizu. He stood incredibly close to me as we walked. "Yeah, we talked about this last week. I'm still up for it if you guys are." As we exited Winter Wonderland and walked towards our cars, we made the final plans for our party that was to happen later.

I placed the keys to my car in Opal's hand, looking at her with my typical serious expression. "I'm letting you drive back to GATE. I'm riding with Mizu. I trust you not to total my car." My tail flicked a bit as she closed her hand around the keys. "No problem,
Falen. Although, I'm curious as to why you're going with Mizu. Are you finally making a move?" A sly grin formed on her face as she nudged me with her elbow. I shooed her elbow away from my side, looking at her. "Well, about that. I forgot to mention it until now, but Mizu and I are actually in a relationship." A sly grin of my own appeared on my face as I looked at Opal, waiting for a reaction.

  "Oh I see. Yeah i'll dri-"
She suddenly paused, realizing what words had just left my mouth. She places her hands on my shoulders, looking at me with a shocked expression. "DID YOU JUST SAY YOU AND MIZU ARE DATING?!?!" She moved her hands from my shoulders to my hands. She held them, shaking them in excitement. "This is so great. I've been waiting for this forever. When did this happen??" She questioned, her eyes still locked onto my face.