From The Ashes We Rise

Chp 24: A Different Christmas

~A Week Later~

It was finally the Christmas season and everyone seemed to be rushing to get good deals in shops. Here in the orphanage, we didn't really celebrate it as grand as everyone else, according to Kyran.

"Basically we just have a nice dinner with all of us," he told me, "that's honestly what I want for Christmas every year. A loving family."

Henry, one of the older orphans, who's around 18, brought in a small pine tree to be placed in the living room. The kids, seeing a decoration like this, somehow knew what to do.

One afternoon, a couple of days before Christmas, I spotted some of them gathered around the little tree next to the TV. They were hanging tiny decorations that appeared to be handmade. It was adorable to see them do that.

Meanwhile, Kyran and I spent the last few days hanging out with Cassidy as usual at the mall or the library. We still hung on to the Christmas lunch plan that we proposed a week before.

"So, what do you want for Christmas?" Cassidy asked us, leaning against a pillar outside a random shop.

"Since I don't have a family anymore, and I fear people still treat me like shit, all I want for Christmas is acceptance. That's it," I answered.

"Well, mine is to have a proper family," Kyran added.

"That might be very possible," Cassidy said.

"You sure?" His face lit up like the Christmas lights.

"Definitely. You're loveable, come on," she joked.

"Damn right you are," I agreed, proceeding to ruffle his hair.

Kyran chuckled as he adjusted his hair. "Man, I do hope so too."

We ambled around the mall until we got tired. Eventually, we left and returned to our respective homes. We were going with our plan to have a Christmas lunch 2 days before it even started. That year was gonna be the first year I had to celebrate Christmas without Nick, dad and mum. I wondered how Nick was doing in college without me. I've never really contacted him after I left. Neither did he.

Kyran and I braved the weather for quite a while before I basically gave up and plopped onto a pile of snow.

"What are you doing?" Kyran asked, squatting beside me.

"I wanna play in the snow."

"No. Only kids do that."

"But I wanna," I whined.

"Shut up dude. You're a teenager. Not a kid. Now get up."

I mumbled something under my breath and stood up. I brushed off any traces of snow left on my clothes before following him home. But before I moved, I gathered some snow and made a snowball. I flung it into the back of Kyran's head, which made him stagger forward.

"Wha—did you just? Throw a snowball at me?" He turned around and glared.

I gave him a sheepish smile. "No," I replied.

"Liar!" He ran over to a pile of snow, made a snowball and held it threateningly as if he was gonna throw it at any second.

"Don't your dare—oof!" The snowball flew out of Kyran's hand and straight into my face. Hard.

"Oh, it's on!" I declared as I wiped the almost melted snow off my face.