The new Mrs. Claus

[6] Clausdon?

I had to look twice. What would Nick be doing here? I just stood there, staring at him. I probably looked like a stalker or something. I mentally slapped myself.

I had to force myself into walking again. I was halfway down the hall when I heard someone running. I turned my head and saw Nick running this way.

“Hey,” he said, sounding out of breath.

“Out of breath already?” I joked.

“Well,” he said, panting, “you’re a fast walker,”

“Yeah yeah. So, why’re you here?” But as soon as the words left my lips, I had an idea. He’s here because his mum is sick, I bet you.

“Okay, don’t laugh,” he said, looking me in the eyes. Maybe he’s not here to see his mum after all?

“I visit the people who’re dying,” he said sheepishly.

I looked at him, wondering if he was being serious. But then again, why would someone joke about that?

“Really? That’s really nice of you,”

“Yeah. They don’t even notice I’m there sometimes. Sometimes they call me by their nephew’s name which is a bit weird,”

I was starting to think that maybe his mum wasn’t sick after all. Maybe he just lied because he was embarrassed about what he does here at the hospital.


“So, is your mum actually sick? My friend Jovie said she asked you,”

“Oh she’s only got the flu, but where I’m from that’s fairly common,” he stated.

“Why’re you here?” he asked when we started to walk again.

“My uncle had a car accident,” I told him everything about the accident. I wouldn’t usually tell people who I’ve only just met this, but he told me the reason why he’s here, knowing that it was an embarrassing subject, so what’s so bad about telling him my reason?

“Oh, I’m sorry to hear about that,” he said, actually sounding like me meant it. You know how people just say that they’re sorry, even though you can tell by the tone of their voice, that they’re actually not? Well, Nick actually sounded sorry.

“It’s okay, I mean, you can’t control what happens though, can you?” We’d now reached the cafeteria. We were standing out the front of the open doors.

“Well, here’s my stop, I’ll see you at school tomorrow?”

“Well,” he looked at the floor, then scratched behind his neck. “sure.” He looked up at me with his boyish grin.

I smiled up at him. But before I knew it, I was pulled into a big hug.

“Nick - humans need something that’s - called - air!” I managed to choke out.

“Oh,” he quickly pulled away and looked at me, a smile on his face.

“I’ll see you later maybe,” I smiled and went into the cafeteria.

I’ve only known Nick for a short amount of time, but he already makes me feel like there’s nothing wrong with the world. Even though there are things in the world that are completely wrong. That sounded really cheesy, but that’s just how he makes me feel.

“Hi, can I please have 2 hot cocoa’s?” I asked the lady working at the counter.

“Sure sweetie,” she turned around and started making my order.

I was looking around the cafeteria when I spotted a vending machine. My mouth began to water at the contents inside of it. There were chips, lollies and chocolate.

“Here you go, that’ll be $4.50 thanks sugar,” I looked at the lady, and handed her the money. She called me sugar.. Creepy lady. I walked over to the vending machine and looked at the prices.

“Need some money?” A deep voice spoke from behind me.

I whirled around, and stood face to face with the one and only, Nick.

“I’ve got some, but thanks,” I turned around and headed for the door, forgetting all about the vending machine.

“So, I thought that you were leaving me at the cafeteria by myself?” I asked, walking towards uncle David’s room.

“Well, if you must know, I was lying,”

I glanced at him, and saw that he had his hands in his pockets, his boyish grin still in place. If I didn’t know any better, I’d think he was shy.

“Hey, just a question, what’s your last name? You never told me, that’s all…” Nick looked up from the ground, and looked into my eyes. I’ve heard that you can’t lie to people if you look into their eyes.

“Claus-” My eyes widened.

“Claus!? As in..” I glanced around, “Santa?”

Nick started laughing, a red hint to his cheeks. “Can I please finish my last name? It’s not Claus, you cut me off.. It’s uh,” he paused for a second, “Clausdon, pronounced Clos-don.”

His last name sounded made up.. But then again, what type of last name is Saunders? (A/N; sorry to anyone whose last name is Saunders… XD)

“Clausdon.. I mean, of course, why would somebody have the last name Claus? How stupid of me..” It was my time to blush. Why’d I open my big mouth, and ask if his last name was Claus? I mean, hello…

“It’s alright. It would be pretty cool to have the last name Claus though.. Anyway, here’s my stop,” he smiled down at me before walking into the room.

“Wait, Nick!” He popped his head out the door, “You never gave me your phone number,”

“Phone number? Oh yeah, phone number, uh..” He scratched the back of his neck and put his hands in his pockets, “I don’t have one. I just moved down here from the no- up north so..”

“Oh, yeah of course! Well, I’ll see you at school. Bye Nick!”

I turned and walked away thinking, what teenage boy doesn’t have a phone number? Hence, what teenager doesn’t have a phone number?

                                                                    *

“Hey bud, where’ve you been?” Uncle David asked when I got back to his room.

I handed him his cocoa, and sipped mine.

“Oh, I ran into a friend from school,” I shrugged a shoulder and continued to sip my cocoa.

“Oh really. Who?” Uncle David sipped his cocoa, and mumbled a ‘mmm’ when he swallowed.

“Nick. Nick Clausdon,”

“That’s a funny last name isn’t it? Clausdon… Clausdon,” he kept on repeating the name Clausdon. “Sounds a bit like Claus doesn’t it? Weird,”

I tried telling uncle David that you pronounced Nick’s last name like Clos-don, as Nick had said, but he refused to say it like that. Instead, he said “Claus-done”.

“Uncle David, it’s Clos-don!” I said while laughing.

He mumbled something along the lines of Claus-boy. He changes his mind on Nick’s last name every 10 seconds. I laughed and got up.

“I think it’s time for me to go. I’ll walk home, need the exercise,”

“Okay Jade, bye, Thanks for the cocoa!”

I smiled and headed for the front entrance, where I was to start walking home. Oh, and did I mention that it started to snow again?

* Hope you liked it! It’s not a long chapter, but I hope that you liked it nevertheless. ;3 I mean, it's really short and everything. Next chapter I'll try and make it longer! This chapter actually took awhile. Hard to believe, I know right? Nothing seemed to fit, so it took way longer than normal.

Well, I'm off to start writing another chapter for this, so I'm on top of things! ;3

NaturallyHamish. *