guarding my angel || "guardian angel" sequel

14

**Victoria's POV**

It's the gang's tradition that on the first night of the annual trip, we go pick a Christmas tree to decorate. The rule is that the girls meet in one room and the boys meet in the other. Darry and Lauren always stay behind to make dinner, so they don't really help out much. We take pictures, and you have to look good. The person with the best picture gets to put the star on the top of the tree.

Johnny and Ponyboy grab their designated outfits and head to Soda's room. As I run around and try to round up all the girls, I see Darry and Lauren bundling up to make a quick run to the nearby store Darry had mentioned earlier. They promised to be back in time to make us dinner.

Jessica and I sit on the bunks and Kayla sits on the floor with Alex, Lulu, and Aliyah. We all lay our outfits onto the floor.

This is Jessica's first year on the trip with us since her and Ponyboy met in the summer. She sits on her bunk above me as Kayla and Alex get us outfits to wear. Since Jessica and I are the youngest, they love to dress us up for special occasions.

Once the outfits are chosen, we all get dressed and begin to do our hair. I curl mine, and the brown curls lay against my winter jacket. Alex's blonde hair gets straightened, and Aliyah gets a bow put in her hair by Kayla. Lulu gets a red bandana, which she wears proudly.

All of us return back to the room to put on our socks, gloves, and shoes. I put on my grey beanie. As the rest of the girls finish up, I look over the banister and see the boys waiting on the couches.

I walk down the stairs, then Kayla, then Alex, then Jessica. The boys all turn and Ponyboy stands when he sees Jessica.

"Woah, Jess you look.....beautiful," he says in awe.

Jessica blushes and looks down.

Soda steps forward and takes Kayla's hands.

"Gorgeous as always," he says. Kayla walks over and he grabs around her waist.

Johnny motions for me to come over, and he hugs me tight and kisses me.

"Let's go!" Alex shouts. "All of this lovey-dovey stuff isn't helping my situation, guys."

Everyone knows how upset Alex is over the fact that everyone has a date but her at the cabin. She hands Aliyah to Lauren so she can watch her.

We all step outside as the crisp air hits. Kayla grabs her polaroid to take pictures with, which she immediately begins by taking one of Lulu. I take Johnny's hand. Soda puts his arm over Kayla. Alex kicks rocks in the path as we head off to find a Christmas tree.

After about an hour of searching and picture taking, we find the tree we want. The boys cut it down and drag it back as us girls follow behind.

We reach the cabin and smoke comes from the chimney. We step inside and see that Lauren and Darry have not only got dinner and desert covered, but got the tree stand and decorations all ready for us. They clearly stopped by some kind of store that I'm assuming is close by.

"OK, dinner first, then we decorate the tree as we eat Lauren's chocolate cake and drink hot cocoa!" Darry says. We all cheer and meet at the large dinner table. Girls on one side, boys on the other. There is an extra seat on the boys side. Alex eyes it sadly, but quick enough that I'm the only one that notices.

We sit across from our boyfriends as we eat a turkey and mashed potatoes. It takes about 20 minutes for everyone to finish, and then the girls tackle all of the dishes. When we're finished and have snuck a few pieces of cake and cups of cocoa, we bring plates, cups, forks, the pitcher of cocoa, and the plate of cake. The boys excitedly dish out their servings as we begin to decorate the tree.

When the whole tree is decorated, we lay out the pictures of everyone, and it's obvious that Jessica's is the best. She smiles proudly, but in a shy way.

Ponyboy gets her on his shoulders and she sets the star on the top of the tree. Everyone applauds, then gets ready for our final tradition of the first day:

All of the girls go into one room and all the boys go into the other and we have to stay in there until 12 am.

But this year, we're making an exception for Alex and Dally.