Today, Tomorrow and Yesterday

Chapter 7: There are Sides to Every Story

Valerie and I tensed up as the door to the cellar opened. I grabbed Logan by the shoulders, and Valerie took Grace's hand. But, as we saw my mom's face appear on the stairs, we relaxed, letting go of the younger kids and smiling at my mother.

"Oh I'm sorry, did I startle you all?" She said, setting a laundry basket down on the floor. Grace and Logan scrambled over to it, shrieking in delight when they discovered it was full of brightly wrapped presents. "I just couldn't let you all spend Christmas down here without something to cheer you up."

"Logan, Grace, what do you say?" I asked softly. They both turned their heads up to my mom and ran over to hug her.

"Thank you Mrs. Vescio." Grace chirped as my mom smoothed her curls out of her face.

"Thank you Miss Warren's mom." Logan said, prompting giggles from us all. Mom sat on the floor, taking presents out of the basket and arranging them in front of her.

"There should be two for each of you." Mom said, prompting protests from Valerie and I.

"You really shouldn't have Lauren." Val said, folding her arms. She got a wave of dismissal in response as mom continued to sort the presents.

"That's why one is a practical gift and one is a more fun one." She handed a box each to Logan and Grace and they tore into them, ripping off the paper, which went flying everywhere. Grace's box revealed an adorable little yellow and green dress, with a matching tiny hair bow.

"Can I put it on? Please?" She begged, running over to Valerie. Val smiled, getting down on one knee to be at Grace's height.

"How about after we all finish opening our presents? Then we can all try out our new stuff together." Val said. I smirked at her, her voice always softened by about six levels when she talked to Grace. She followed Grace back over to the presents, and bent down to pick up one, but my mom scooted it out of her way.

"Let the kids go first Val." Mom said, laughing.

"Hey, but you're the one always saying I'm still a kid." Retorted Val. "Pick a side, I'm either a kid or I'm not." Mom stood up and started playing with Val's locks of wavy dark red hair. She took a finger and bopped her on the nose, making Val's freckled face scrunch up.

"You will always be a little girl to me Val, and Warren will always be a little boy." I shook my head as Val ducked down and spun away from my mom.

"Don't get all sentimental on me Lauren." She said. Mom started to answer her, but was interrupted by shrieks from Logan and Grace. Our resident eight and eleven year olds were surrounded by more paper, and Grace was waving a new coloring book around. Logan was trying to yank a Jedi shirt over his head, while also trying to rip open the box that contained a new DS game. I ran over to help him so he didn't suffocate himself.

"But I want to put it on!" He yelled at me as I lifted the shirt away from him. He grabbed it with both hands and yanked stubbornly. After a few seconds of tug-a-war, mom came over and lifted a wiggling Logan off of the ground.

"Calm down Logan, or you won't get any cookies."

"Cookies!" Said Grace, the word barely recognizable amid her eight years young high-pitched shrieking.

"Shush!" Val told her sharply, covering the younger girl's mouth. "Way too loud Grace." Grace nodded and dropped dramatically to the floor onto her back. Val folded her arms as Grace faked an exasperated sigh. But catching sight of Valerie's glare, she scrambled to her feet and returned to her new coloring book. I chuckled, glancing around at the concrete walls covered in torn-out coloring pages. If she colored through the whole book too quickly, we were gonna run out of wall space.