New Girl ( #1 How I Fell in Love Trilogy)

Christmas

So I decided I needed to get a move on my chapters, or I'll never finish before the school year ends. This chapter's Christmas; the dance will be after winter break. Enjoy!

Sophie squinted her eyes at the sudden light. 

"Merry Christmas Sophie!" Her parents chorused. It seemed they were more excited about Christmas than Sophie was. She sat up, rubbed her eyes, and smiled. 

"Merry Christmas Mom and Dad!" Sophie cheered back. She climbed out of bed and gave them both hugs. Together, the three of them went downstairs to the living room, where a great big Christmas tree stood tall and grande. Under the tree, colorful gifts were gathered in a neat pile. 

"This year we're having Christmas with the Dizznee's, so you'll open gifts then," Sophie's mom said. Sophie had almost forgotten that they were coming over. 

"Yesss!" Sophie exclaimed. Her Dad pulled out his glasses and a list. 

"Don't celebrate to early young lady," He teased. "You have to get the house ready." 

"On Christmas?" Sophie whimpered. Her Dad raised an eyebrow. 

Sophie grabbed the list. 

                                                                                          *** 

Ding-dong! 

Sophie ran to the door and flung it open, and stumbled back immediately.

"MERRY CHRISTMAS!" 

Three kids (who looked around the age that kids were when they reached their upmost potential for mischief), barreled into Sophie. They scattered like rodents, away from the doorway. When Sophie finally recovered, she saw an annoyed Dex walking towards the door. 

"Did they break you yet?" He asked, looking around for the troublesome trio. 

"No, just unbalanced me, which isn't hard to do anyway." Sophie replied amiably. Dex's parents came up the pathway and greeted Sophie. Sophie led everyone into the kitchen, where her Dad was preparing a ham for dinner. Sophie's mom had on a ridiculous apron that looked like Rudolph was wearing oven mitts or something. 

"Merry Christmas Juline!" Sophie's mom said. Sophie and Dex retreated to the dining room, where they had heard a suspicious crashing noise.

They walked in to find the triplets attempting to make a tower with the presents. Three heads turned at their arrival, all of them with guilty grins on their faces. 

"Rex, Bex, and Lex, what will they do next?" Dex said, trying to act sound like a grown up. Sophie smiled at his attempt. 

"That didn't even rhyme Dex!" Sophie mock scolded. The triplets laughed uneasily, as if by siding with Sophie they would be let off the hook. Dex proceeded to turn to them and give a lecture that begged for spacing out. After five minutes, Sophie stopped him. 

"Dinnertime!" Juline announced. The triplets ran out of the room. 

"Nice speech," Sophie muttered. 

"I have a lot of practice," Dex replied. 

                                                                               *** 

Dinner left Sophie wishing she wore baggy clothes. There had been ham, rolls, oven roasted vegetables, and potatoes. That in itself would have satisfied Sophie, but there was also dessert. Gingerbread cookies, sugar cookies, a yule log, and peppermint cheesecakes were spread across a table. However, it was her Mom's famous dessert, Mallowmelt, that one the prize. Mallowmelt was a recipe that had been passed down for generations in Sophie's family. The notion of declining Mallowmelt was almost unthinkable. 

After dinner, the family gathered around the tree to open gifts. The triplets were each given clothes by their parents (obviously they hated this), and were given water guns by Sophie's family, courtesy of Grady. Of course, they soon began to bicker on the subject of whose was the best. Sophie and Dex tuned them out as they opened their gifts. 

Dex opened his gift from Sophie, smiled, then held it up for his family to see. It was a shiny silver watch. Sophie had picked it out with the memories of all the times he tinkered with his watch is class. His last one had been broken by one of the triplets. 

"Thanks Sophie!" Dex exclaimed, admiring it in the light. Sophie unwrapped her gift to find two matching gold bands with little circles all around. She turned them over in her hands. They were light, yet had a good weight to them. Dex held out his hand, and Sophie gave them to him. 

"Watch this," he said. Dex moved his finger along the band until he reached a concealed button. He pressed them and suddenly the bracelets became spiked. Sophie gasped, delighted. 

"For self defense, in case you run into trouble. All you have to do is hit them together in here," he pointed to a slightly lighter portion, "and they'll transform. Press on the outsides to deactivate the spikes." 

Sophie deactivated the bracelets.  

"Wow, this is so much better than anything I could ever give you," Sophie said. The adults were talking loudly, and the triplets looked like they were satisfied, so Sophie and Dex decided to go to Sophie's room. 

Sophie sat on the bed and sighed. Dex did the same. 

"So... how are you liking school?" Dex asked, reverting to the most generic question ever. 

"I like it," Sophie said. "The students there are mostly nice, and it's so much better than I thought it would be." 

Dex seemed to digest her words slowly. 

"Do you like anyone at Foxfire?" he asked, catching Sophie off-guard. 

"What, why-" her response was cut short by Dex's parents announcing their departure. 

Dex looked unsatisfied. 

"I guess you're leaving." Sophie said, filling the silence. She awkwardly walked towards the door, looking back over her shoulder. He followed. 

                                                                               *** 

Sophie sat up. She just couldn't go to sleep. After the Dizznees had left, she and her parents had decided to go to sleep. Sophie padded over to the window and opened it, letting the starlight bathe her in silver. A breeze chilled her skin and played with her messy blonde hair, making her wish she hadn't foolishly opened the window. 

She looked across at Keefe's house. He must have had Christmas alone, because she had seen his parents leave earlier without him. She guessed he was still alone, which made her chest ache with sympathy and sadness. Sophie had always been surrounded by family during Christmas. The thought of having no one was almost unimaginable. A wave of exhaustion finally pulled her back to bed. 

                                                                                 *** 

Keefe watched as Sophie closed the window and pulled the drapes closed, sighing deeply. She hadn't seen him, because he hadn't wanted her to pity him. He now stepped out into the starlight, and gracefully navigated his way to her house. He silently climbed up to the roof and skirted around the edge. He reached her windowsill. Keefe could see through a tiny space between the curtains that she was fast asleep. I really hope this isn't creepy he thought. He smiled, reached into his jacket, and pulled out a messily wrapped Christmas gift. 

"Merry Christmas Sophie," he whispered, then was gone like a shadow in the night.