Last Christmas (Book 1 in the Christmas Series)

Chapter Twenty-Nine

"You would have thought they'd lay off us given how close we are to the end of the year," Niska groaned, throwing her pen onto her textbook in frustration.

"No chance. Not for us, anyway. Maybe in the last week we'll be lucky and get some word searches or Christmas themed colourin' pages," Joel said, shaking his head. He barely even looked up as he scribbled away in his workbook, doing all his Maths problems himself without the need of a calculator, unlike me.

"The sooner this term comes to an end, the better. I cannot wait for two weeks of stuffing my face and sleeping till mid-day. I love the Christmas holidays."

"Only a week and a half to go. Just need to get past the showcase and the Christmas fair and we are done."

"Do you know whether or not you're sticking around after Christmas, Ken?"

"Nope. Still need to make my mind up on that one," I said.

"You'd better hurry up and decided. Not long to go and I'm sure the school will want to know before the end of the year."

"By this time next week, I'll have an answer."

With just under two weeks to go, the pressure was mounting up for me to make my mind up about whether I would be sticking around or going back home. Truth be told, I didn't want to make my mind up. It was all becoming a little too real a little too quickly and there was nothing I could do to stop the rollercoaster. Two months had gone by in a flash and I wanted everything to just stop, slow down, or rewind back to the beginning. I didn't like having that much responsibility on my shoulders with such a short amount of time left to go and it was terrifying. I had to decide whether I wanted to leave everything I knew behind and start a new life or go home and leave my friends behind. Honestly, I didn't expect it to be as difficult as it was.

Of course, I knew it was never going to be an easy task, deciding what to with my life was always going to be tricky, but I didn't think it would be impossible. Every time something had happened, either good or bad, I went through all possible scenarios about making my mind up, but none of it had helped. To be honest, it was a pain trying to figure out what to do and I wished I could have shut my head into a cupboard and hidden away from it all. That, of course, wasn't a possibility so I needed to come up with a solution and I needed one quickly. Not that I had any time to think about it, things were getting busy faster than someone could say Christmas cracker.

Despite only having a week and a bit left till the end of the school year, the teachers were piling on the work without showing any sign of letting up. I expected it from Mrs Reynolds since she wasn't exactly known for being gentle on her students, Jason was being as enthusiastic as ever since the showcase was just around the corner, but the others were just being rude. People were excited for the Christmas break and the concentration levels were practically non-existent. No one could focus knowing Christmas was right around the corner, and, despite how I felt about Christmas, I was inclined to agree. Though I expect that was due to not having to go to school in the morning because that became a drag pretty quickly.

"That was mum, she's here to get me. The orthodontist awaits! See ya, suckers," Niska said, shoving her phone into the pocket and aimlessly shoving paper and textbooks into her bag.

"I don't know why that's a good thing," I said, watching her with a raised eyebrow.

"'cause I get out of revision and you're stuck here 'till you finish that Maths work."

"I'd take Maths over gettin' braces tightened any day of the week. You always say it hurts so why you'd enjoy it is beyond me."

"You like Maths, I don't. I can handle the physical pain from getting braces tightened, the mental pain caused by Maths is not something that goes away easily."