A Different Christmas Vacation

Chapter One

Christmas vacations were supposed to be filled with lots of fun and family, baking cookies, sleeping in, and being silly together. But mine was going to be a bit different because instead of gathering around the Christmas tree on Christmas day, we were going to drive from Chicago to Nashville to see my aunt Chloe for Christmas.

It was the twenty-third. And as you would guess, there was a lot of craziness going on in my house. The five of us were packing and running around like headless chickens in our small and compact house.

"Anyone know where my shampoo is?!" Henry, my youngest brother shouted through the house.

"Not a clue!" someone answered, probably Mom.

"Where is my hair dryer?!" Janice shouted from the bathroom.

"I saw it in the kitchen!" Quinn shouted back.

"What the hell is it doing in the kitchen?" I heard her curse from the bathroom.

"Language. Janice!" my dad shouted.

"Sorry, Dad!" she shouted back.

Janice came back into our room with her hair dryer and pushed it into her already full back.

"I don't think it'll zip up," I told her.

"I'll make it fit," she said as she struggled with the zipper. "Come and sit on it."

"What? I'm supposed to sit on your suit case?"

"Well yeah. How else is it supposed to fit?"

"I don't know, take some stuff out!"

"Shut up and sit!" she demanded.

"Fine," I grumbled. I climbed onto her twin bed and sat on the suit case with my arms crossed over my chest. I didn't like to be bossed around by my younger sister.

She zipped up the suit case and I hopped off. "Thank you," Janice said very ungratefully.

"And you're welcome," I said the same way as she had.

I finished up my packing by putting my toiletries bag into the big suit case and zipped it up with ease.

"You forgot to put your sweatshirt in," Janice told me.

"Oh thanks," I said. I unzipped the bag and put my sweatshirt in on top. It was my favorite sweatshirt, also my lucky sweatshirt that I'd gotten because I won the track and field 200 meter dash at state, so I considered it lucky.

I closed the bag back up and slung it over my shoulder. I clomped down the stairs lazily and put my bag down beside the kitchen table. "Time!" I said.

"Good for you. Go get the car and bring it around front," my mom directed.

"We're not leaving until tomorrow," I said. "Why bring the car out?"

"Your father and I decided we're leaving tonight so we could get there early and hopefully spend Christmas Eve with Chloe."

"But all I wanted to was open presents on Christmas night before going to bed, then spend a couple days down there and come back."

"Honey, the weather's going to be bad Christmas day and we don't want to be caught in the weather. That way we'll be able to spend more time with your aunt Chloe. And if the weather is rough all week like it's supposed to be, we'll just have more time to spend with your aunt. It's just for our safety," my mom explained.

"Does everyone else know?" I asked.

"Yes, they do. While you were sleeping, I called a family meeting. We figured we'd tell you later, but I guess we kind of forgot until now."