The Cherry Trees

Chapter Nineteen: 2014

"Uh... what the heck is that supposed to be?"

I looked up from what I thought was a beautiful drawing of Rudolph the red- nosed reindeer.

"It's Rudolph. Can't you tell?" I asked Zane, a little offended that my drawing skills were being insulted.

"It looks like a chicken."

"Really. A chicken."

"Yeah! Look it only has two legs and its nose is too big."

"I'm not even done drawing the other two legs and its Rudolph! He is supposed to have a big nose to light the way!" I said defensively.

"Okay..."

I gave him a good hard shove and his chair tipped on two legs before steadying itself with a loud bang on the tile floor. I started laughing and Ms. Myers looked up from her desk.

"Anne and Zane, please stop disturbing the rest of the class with your flirting and get back to your holiday project," she teased. All the kids turned in their desks to look back at us, and Remy covered her mouth to hide her smile. I blushed uncontrollably and hid behind my long curtain of blond hair. I hastily began coloring my reindeer again and avoided looking at Zane. After a few minutes I snuck a look at him, and found that he was seemingly unfazed by the horribly embarrassing moment. I turned back to my project, which I thought was coming along nicely. Besides my chicken- legged reindeer.

Our projects had to be any type of artwork with a poem about out favorite part of the holidays, whatever we celebrated. I did mine for Christmas Eve, when Santa supposedly came. I had brought in some cotton balls, silver glitter, and some other art supplies to help create a masterpiece project. The one thing I couldn't bring in to perfect my project, however, is my lack of drawing skill.

I pulled apart some cotton balls and pasted them onto the poster board to make some snow. Then I dusted it with silver glitter, and painted a moon out of glow in the dark paint. I drew in a house with some Christmas lights and glued some pine needles in the shape of a tree outside the house. After I finished drawing in the reindeer, I was going to write the poem to go with it.

Zane threw a piece of paper at me, and I reluctantly picked it up, looking around the room before opening it to make sure no one was watching.

Chickens can't fly, it said.

I busted out laughing, drawing attention to me yet again.

"Anne, what is so funny?" Ms. Myers asked.

"My drawings."

"Well, why don't you bring them up here and I can decide that for you," she said sternly.

I slowly stood up and walked to her desk of the room with my project, keeping my head down as I made the long walk from the back the the very front. I handed over my project and she smiled.

"Well, they are a little funny," she said, referring to my reindeer. Then she winked at me and nodded towards my desk, letting me know I could go sit down again. I added some final touches to my artwork and then began on my poem.

Ho Ho Ho!

A deep voice cries

With fluffy white snow

Falling from the sky

A bright red light

Beaming from a nose

That lights the way

That Santa goes!

He brings us toys

Puts them under the tree

Oh the joys

Of Christmas Eve

I stared at my project and felt a kind of sadness knowing that none of this was true. Now there was a different meaning to Christmas besides the thrill of Santa coming. I felt like I could actually appreciate it for what it was meant to be. But I still looked forward to the presents. Who wouldn't?

-

"Oh Anne how's this?" Mom said, holding up yet another dress.

"Yeah it's fine."

"Try it on please?"

I tilted my head to the side and let my eyelids droop, letting her know I was not that happy about it.

"Please?"

"Fine."

I went into the dressing room holding the various dresses that my mom had picked out for me, none of which I was particularly keen on. I wasn't really a dressy person in general.

The first dress I tried on was a red, velvet- like fabric and it fit really awkward. I decided not to even show my mom. The next one was a black one with a white bow going around my waist. It was okay, but I still didn't really like it.

I went through a bunch of other dresses, finally coming to a gold one, with a sparkly top and a sheer bottom. I actually liked it, so I slipped it back on the hanger and stepped out of musty dressing room, leaving the rest of the dresses on the sticky bench inside it. 

"This one," I said to my mom, holding it up.

"You sure?"

"Yep."

"Alright then. Let's go take a picture with Santa!"

She meant the mall Santa. Fantastic. We got onto the escalator, where I got a full view of the line I was about to stand in for who knows how long. It wound around the red velvet ropes and along the gated area full of fake gift boxes and fluffy snow. The line was full of sick kids with a cold who chased their siblings around or had made new friends and chasing them around. The ones closest to the front of the line were crying or holding onto their parents in fear. Their dads patted their heads and backs, while the moms fumbled with their various bags trying to pull out a camera or a new diaper. The kids on Santa's lap were red faced and crying, scared to death of the jolly ole Saint Nicholas.

We were in for a great time, I could tell.

-

"Good job Alice!" my parents cooed as she tore open another easily wrapped present, without bows or surplus amounts of tape.

She giggled and continued to rip the paper instead of admiring her talking baby doll. I laughed and my mom snapped a picture, and then took her up in her arms. It was my turn next, so I crawled under the small Christmas tree to grab one of the remaining gifts, of course, pushed to the very back of the tree. I grabbed it and slid out from under the tree, checking to see who it was from. I opened the tag and saw that it was from Lexi, Luke, and Will. This outta be good, I thought. I tore it open to reveal an electronic looking thing, with very few buttons. I turned it over in its box and saw that is was a Kindle. I squealed with delight, for they all knew how much I loved to read. I opened the card, handmade by them, and read it.

Dear Anne,

Merry Christmas! Does Santa come in England? Well, if he doesn't, here is a gift from us! Now you can read any book anytime anywhere. Hope you like it! We love you and miss you!

Love your bestest friends in the whole wide world,

Lexi, Luke, and Will

I smiled knowing that even though we were on opposite ends of the world, it was still true that they were my best friends on Earth.