A Day in My Life

Christmas Eve

I woke up and groggily checked my phone. It was 6 A.M., December 24th. 

Wait... December 24th??? CHRISTMAS EVE? YES!

I stumbled out of bed and stood up. I shot out of my room and thumped down the hall and slammed Blake's door open. I ran over to him, threw off his sheets, and hopped onto him. Yes, I swear I am in high school.

"BLAKE! GET YOUR FAT BUTT UP!" I yelled into his ear. He let out a moan and sat straight up. I fell off of him and hit the floor with a groan.  I jumped up and got back on. 

He looked at me. "What did you say to me?" he asked, as his eyes glared. 

"I saaaaid... Ummm..." I ad-libbed  "I said please get up please." I said with an innocent smile.

"That's what I thought." he said with a smile, standing up. 

"Yay." I said.

"So what kind of tree are we getting this year?" Blake asked. 

"Whatever I feel in the moment!" I said, running back to my room to change.

Every Christmas Eve, we had a tradition of waking up early and going to get a Christmas tree. Then, we would decorate it with all of our old ornaments and then wrap our presents. I don't know, it was like the one movie we all agreed on. 

Once I had on a nice sweater, jeans, and boots, I walked over to each room to get the other boys.

I went to Nicks room first. Nick was still asleep so I pushed him. He stayed quiet. 

I kept pushing him around until he said "Fine. I'll meet you in the car."

I smiled and opened Talen's door. 

Talen was already awake and lacing up his shoes. I forgot, he was a morning person. I smiled at him and shut the door again. Two down.

When I stepped into the hall, I saw Blake coming out of my room. Blake had woken Emma up for me. He told me that he would get everyone to get into the car, but I had to wake everyone up. Unfortunately, the last two were still up to me. I went over to Dylan's room, where both Dylan and Eric were staying. Yikes.

I walked in and lightly shut the door. 

I then hopped onto the bed where Dylan was sleeping. I poked Dylan's cheek. 

"Wake up." I whispered. 

He groaned.

"Wake uppppp." I whispered louder. 

"Kota?" he asked. 

"Yeah. It's christmas eve. Go get in the car. We're getting the tree."

He rolled over and mumbled a no.

I went to the other side and poked him again. 

"If you get up, I'll wake Eric up." I said, looking over at the lump still asleep on the floor.

Dylan turned to me, suddenly awake. 

"Really?" he asked with a smile.

"Yeah!" I said. "Blake told me I had to. But you have to be fully awake and ready to go." 

"Alright." Dylan said, sitting up and taking off his gross ripped pajama shirt. He threw on a dark T-shirt and then a flannel over it. 

"See, I'm up?" he said. 

"Alright." I said, looking over at Eric, who slept sprawled out on the floor.

"How do I get him up?" I asked Dylan. 

"I don't know. I don't think even jumping on his face would work." he said with a chuckle. Eric was a notorious deep sleeper. 

"I have an idea." I said, going into Dylan's bathroom. Because he had the master Bedroom, he had a bathroom connected to his room directly. I walked in and stepped immediately on some clothing and something sticky. I checked my foot. Toothpaste, nice. I wiped it off and called out "You're disgusting." as I grabbed a pitcher from under the sink. 

I then filled it to the brim with cold water. I used both hands to hold it and walked out of the room. I walked over to Eric and stood above him. Dylan looked at me and his jaw dropped open. "Yes." he said, excitedly. I smiled too a little ad said "Get ready, and please help me." I then emptied the entire pitcher of cold water onto Eric's face. His eyes shot open. He let out a gasp and looked at me with angry fired up eyes. Then he said "You. did. NOT."

I dropped the pitcher and ran over to the door and out of the room. I sprinted down the stairs and couldn't contain a laugh. I looked behind me and saw Eric step out of Dylan's room and look down at me over the stairs railing. Dylan was behind him, and crying with laughter. Eric searched until his eyes lit on me and then he sprinted down the stairs, as I ran out the door. I walked through the grass and got to the car. I hopped in and fell onto Emma Talen and Nick. 

I said "DRIVE!" and Blake said "Huh?" He did not listen to my request and soon Eric was in the car and tried to lunge towards me, until Nick and Emma pulled him back. I crawled into the seat farthest away. Dylan jumped into the front seat and then shut the door behind him. Blake began driving and Eric said "What? What is happening?"

Blake said "We're going to get a tree."

Eric said "I'm not even dressed!" He was wearing just some sweats and an old t Shirt that was gray, but I think they used to be white. He was lying across Nick and Emma's lap still and Talen was smushed in between. 

Talen let out a strangled noise and said "Can we please sit down normally?"

Eric smiled and said "Sure thing." He then crawled over to me, sat down, and pulled me onto his lap. 

I may have slightly whimpered at his terrifying expression. 

The drive was about an hour long. The whole time was spent with Eric squeezing my arms so hard they bruised, punching me when no one noticed, or flicking me annoyingly.  We finally got to the tree area, the one we went to every year. It was called Frosty's Forest, and they had a thousand trees to choose from. The reason we had first come was because when I was younger, I wanted to go as we were driving home and we had never failed to come back every year. 

We all got out of the car and started looking at them. Talen went in to find one and I followed. The others trailed behind. Emma and I were looking together and we found many different trees.  Some were tall and huge, or short and small, or medium or thick or sparse or everything. Finally  I found the one. 

Then that one was being loaded into a car so I kept walking until I found the real one.

But that one had a weird lopsided trunk and like 5 broken branches. So I found another.

And that one was perfect.

I called Blake over to tell him it was the one. He strolled around it and said "Alright, I accept it. But let's ask the others. In the end, everyone agreed on it so Blake paid and Eric and Dylan carried it, while Talen tried to help and Nick walked with Emma and I back to the car.

Once it had been jammed in, we all went inside too. We barely fit in the car and for an hour I was jammed up against a tree trunk with pine needles in my hair. But it was all worth it. When we got home, the boys brought it in and we set it in the small bucket thing that held it. I added some water and then Blake pulled out the Christmas boxes from the closet. I got out the box of ornaments and pack of lights and set them on the table. Let the joy and Christmas merriment begin.