Too much love will kill you

Christmas Eve

Rachel's POV:

Christmas Eve was bliss, Alicia and Ethan weren't working and Mam and Dad were on compassionate leave so for the first time in ages we were all together at christmas. We were going to the cinema to see Frozen 2 and then we were going for KFC it was kind of a family tradition to get KFC and go watch a film on christmas eve and then we all changed into clean pjs and opened 1 present each before leaving out a glass of milk for Santa and a mince pie or cookie and a carrot for the reindeer. 

Me and Faith were in our room blasting her playlist very loudly whilst we tried to find where we'd put our christmas pjs from last year, Alicia walked in and just looked at us "What on earth happened in here, it looks like a tip" She shouted trying to make herself heard over our very loud music. I reached up for the speaker and turned it down to a more reasonable level and then dived into the pile of clothes and held up a bunch of clothes triumphantly "Found them!, here faith i think these are yours" I threw a pair of pjs across the room at her 

"Girls! Are you listening to me?!, tidy this up now it's horrendous there was no need to drag all your clothes out like this " Alicia said and walked out shutting the door behind her 

I rolled my eyes and turned the speaker up again singing loudly as i folded my clothes back into my drawer. "FAITH HAVE YOU SEEN MY LEATHER JACKET" i yelled over the music, i hadn't seen it since the day of my accident and i wanted to wear it tonight to go out in along with a bright pink metallic tube top and leather skirt i'd bought online with my christmas money from Uncle Cal and Auntie Jac coincidentally Mam hadn't seen it yet because i knew she'd have objected to me buying them if she had .

She rooted through our wardrobe and shrugged "Maybe ask Mam, when did you last have it" She flopped onto her bed and grabbed a magazine from under her bed "The day of my accident, how have you finished already you always seem to have more clothes than me" I said now talking at a normal level because we'd had several yelled complaints from everyone about our music so we'd had to turn it off

"If you stopped procrastinating and checking your phone every 5 minutes to see if Hugo has messaged you then you'd be done as well" She stuck her tongue out and i threw a cushion at her.

She wasn't wrong , Hugo had said he was going to come round at some point today with a present for me and i kept checking my phone. As well as this a jiffy bag from Rosie had arrived two days ago and Mam took it off me and refused to let me touch it, It wasn't fair i didn't even know if it was a christmas present or not. All of a sudden my phone screen lit up and i grabbed it quickly thinking it might be Hugo but it was only Mam texting me from downstairs something she'd taken to doing since my accident "Faith we have been summoned , we're wanted downstairs" I said grabbing my crutch and sticking my phone in my sling and hopping out of our room and then into the lift waiting for Faith and we went downstairs into the living room.

"You called , we arrived" Faith said cheekily helping me to sit down before seating herself on the arm of the settee next to me

"Don't be cheeky Faith-Elizabeth " Dad looked at her and Faith immediately squirmed in her seat none of us could stand being called by our full name including our middle name "We were kind of busy ask Alicia if you don't believe us so whatever this is can it be over like now" I stated making to get up 

"Sit back down we're not done yet, we need all of you to tidy your rooms and then bring your presents for your secret santa down here once you've done then we'll book tickets for tonight and in the meantime i thought we could all take a drive over to Winter Wonderland" Dad said and we all cheered and i may have accidentally knocked Faith off the arm of the sofa 

Basically another tradition in our family was to do Secret Santa which got increasingly difficult as our family expanded because it meant that 10 people were involved Mam , Dad, Alicia , Ethan, Faith and Me, Grace, Hannah and the twins although we all knew that they got help from the adults as they were only 5 and Hannah 7 it was hard to believe she was nearly 10. This year i'd been given Ethan and his present was a simpsons t-shirt and a bag of drumstick squashies because we always joked that when he got sunburnt he looked like a squashie half red half white. I managed to get it out of Faith who she had by letting her record me a new voicemail message which was horribly embarrassing she had Mam this year and was getting her this soap from primark that looked like a real fish in a bag and she was going to put it in a box decorated to look like a Tank because Mam refused to let us have another fish because when me and Faith were little about 5 and 7 we had a fish and we accidentally forgot to feed it and it died.