My big book of weirdness

A Not So Grande Christmas

Okay, this is a short story I have written for @littlemisspixelated 's 10k celebration competition.

For all of you who are not a part of the roleplay I'll give you a quick summary of what's happened prior so you're not confused.

It's the year 2098, and Bellator Academy is a school which trains young people to fight the A.I ((or demons)), who are currently trapped in the virtual world, or are at least supposed to be. My Ocs are the triplets Tessie, Elliot and Griff Grande, and their younger brother Mickey Grande. The event that recently took place was the Dance in which the students and teachers celebrate the day Headmaster King trapped the A.I. Unfortunately, Elliot and three other students Maggie, Nadia and Al, got trapped in a coma. This short story taked place when the three remaining Grande's return home for Christmas.

And without further ado, I present...

A Not So Grande Christmas ((word count: 740))

Tess had barely said a word on the way home. Griff was growing increasingly worried about his sister. Mickey had also been sleeping a lot, something he did when stressed. Griff wished he could do the same, just shut everything off and let his dreams carry him away to happier times. They took the train home as they usually did. Their parents, Rachel and Andrew worked a lot and would only get home shortly after they did. Which Griff hoped would give him time to come up with a way to explain everything to them. He had tried to on the train ride, but it was just too uneasy.

Usually, the two elder brothers would be arguing about everything and anything, Tess would be either laughing at them or twisting their ears of and Mickey would be charming the old people who also sat in the carriage into giving him toffees and slices of fruitcake. Bernie and Emily would be barking at their feet and Slinky would be hiding under the seats or chasing Joey.

Soon – but not soon enough – they arrived back in West Yorkshire. Griff carried Mickey with Tess following to their home. As predicted, their parents weren't back so they let themselves in. After putting Mickey to bed, Griff came back downstairs to find Tess curled up on the sofa with a pint of ice cream and the two dogs watching an ancient movie called "In & Out" or something, he couldn't really remember, and his parents car parked in the driveway. The Rachel and Andrew Grande were really old fashioned people yet worked at a company which provided the latest tech in this day and age, which Griff thought was a bit weird but had never questioned it.

"Honey we're home!" Andrew called out in a stupid sing-song voice like he always did. Usually Tess and Mickey would run to hug them followed at a much slower pace by Griff and Elliot. There would be laughter and fun and pizza. But Griff feared how different it was going to be.

"Did anyone hear me?" Andrew called again, "I said we're home!" He and Rachel entered the living room. Rachel's face was instantly over-taken by concern.

"Tessie sweetheart, are you okay?" She knelt by the sofa and cupped her only daughter's face in her hands, "Did anyone hurt you? Do I need to have a talk with anyone?" Tess shook her head and pushed Rachel away.

"Where are Mickey and Elliot?" Andrew asked, finally realising that two of his kids were nowhere to be seen.

"Mickey's upstairs asleep. He's had a long week." Griff said quietly.

"And is Elliot up there too?" Their father asked, "I'll bet anything he's reading again."

"No he's..." Griff hesitated then decided it was better to get it all out at once. "He's still at school. There was an accident at the dance and him and three other student got put in a coma on no one knows what caused it."

"What?" Rachel clasped her hands over her mouth, "What? H-how? N-n-no this can't be... We sent you to that school so you would be safe!"

Rachel continued, "We sent you there so you could learn to get along again. We sent you there to be a family again..." She looked down at Tess who was looking close to tears. "You promised me you'd look after them! You said...you said you'd make sure no one hurt them! And you let this happen? How cou-"

"It's not her fault Mum." Griff said loudly, "No one knew this was going to happen! No one could have prevented it! You have no right to take it out on her!" And he grabbed Tess's hand and pulled her up into their bedroom where Mickey lay snoring.

"You didn't have to do that." Tess whispered, and those five words were all she said during the holidays.

If Griff could have had once wish, he would have wished for the holidays to go by quicker. Barely anyone said anything beyond "Pass the salt" or "Merry Christmas". Christmas morning, a pile of presents were left untouched under the tree. New Year's Eve, everyone was in bed for 9, yet no one slept. Come the morning they went back to school, Griff felt a slither of relief, maybe Elliot would be awake, maybe everything would be normal, maybe Tess would speak again. The truth lay only a train ride away.