Rewrite Your Happiness (A Ryan Ross Fanfiction)

Paying In Naivety

  Christmas was just around the corner. Things started to actually feel like the advertising in October and November was worth it. To cut things short, Brent was kicked out of the band. Certain events were happening sooner than expected once again. But Ryan was taking music more serious than he did before, asking Brendon and Spencer to step up their game and see if they agreed with Brent's lack of attending practices or writing.

It was pretty out of the blue, too. I mean, after that talk Ryan and I had...he did start taking a lot of initiative in the band and the gigs. Apparently he already had a backup bassist, saying he met up with an old friend when he stopped by on campus. His name was Jon Walker. That was when I remembered, he was the better bassist. Despite his early appearance in the band's discography, I could not wait to meet him.

That's when Ryan said we wouldn't be waiting too long. He said Sam was having a small get together to exchange white elephant gifts a few days before Christmas. White elephant gifts are literally a joke. All you do is make, find, or buy something worth five dollars or less like a duct tape wallet, a matchbox, soap, or a box of condoms and give them to a random person for Christmas.

Seeing that we need a small group that of people for this to work, she was nice enough to let Ryan invite a few of his friends. It was just going to be Sam, three of her friends, the boys and I. This made me super excited and uncertain at the same time. On the up side, I'd get to meet Jon. On the downside, Sam already intimidated me like a wolf hunting a fox. Since she was so worried I would ruin her relationship, I had to be on watch for any shit she'd pull.

We were all given identical white gift bags to put our present in so we wouldn't recognize anyone's bag when choosing gifts. After thinking about what I would buy, I reminded myself Jon would be coming. I laughed to myself, remembering the video that Ginger showed me, when Ryan told Jon he needed to play bells over and over again. So, I decided to get some jingle bells tied to a stick colored in black nail polish (which was much cheaper than buying a bell wand), along with some Jolly Ranchers and some chop sticks so it wasn't too suspicious. No one but me would get it, but if he picked my present it was so going to be worth it. In spite of all this, I still wanted to get everyone I knew a proper gift for Christmas. I knew none of them celebrated Christmas other than for the presents, so I couldn't really lose if I tried in the slightest.

The night of the party, Brendon and I walked with Spencer to get to Sam's house. "Hey, Spencer! How's it going?" I asked, giving him a hug when he arrived at the front of the complex.

"Hey, Elise, Brendon.  It's been going like any other Christmas: tidings of great cheer and all that stuff." He said, giving Brendon a bro-hug.

"So, are we all good to go?" I asked, teetering on my heels with pent up energy.  The boys nodded and we began to walk. After a few steps, Spencer spoke up.

"I'll be honest, I'm not to keen about going to Sam's house for this thing. I mean, she isn't a stranger to me but...I don't know, small parties aren't her thing." Brendon chimed in.

"I've been to one of the parties before and I didn't see any adult figure during the course of the entire night. Maybe her parents aren't going on a trip and this was the only shindig she was allowed before the year comes to an end." It wasn't that hard to believe. Sam knew how to throw a party and clean up without a trace. It must feel weird not cleaning up someone else's mess, seeing that the aftermath was more worth the gain of school popularity.

Spencer shrugged. "Maybe...I am, however, quite proud of my present. Don't take mine because it's the biggest joke of it all. I just decided to duct tape layers over a plastic bag of marbles. If anyone can guess what it is before they break the seal digging into it, you won't...'lose your marbles.'" I turned my head away to chuckle as quietly as I could contain. Brendon just put his hand over his face and shook his head. I wasn't being fooled, though. He was trying not to lose it as easily as I did. Spencer grinned widely. I know he was feeling triumphant with that stupid pun.