December Memories: HSMTMTS Holiday Imagines

December 10th: A not so Merry Caswell Christmas Story (Gina x E.J?)

Author's Note: I'm sorry if this story is all over the place. I had this great idea of retelling how the Grinch stole Christmas and why he didn't like Christmas. But my idea kinda flopped. Just a small trigger warning, this story mentions the death of a loved one very briefly. I guess what I tried to do in this story is show that not everyone likes Christmas and they have a reason for it.

*Friday*

Gina's POV:

At the last drama club meeting, Ashlyn announced that she was planning this year's secret snowflake event for the club. She explained to us that it is exactly like secret Santa, except its more diverse since she celebrates Hanukah with Big Red.

When it was my turn to pick a piece a paper out of the name jar, I opened it discretely and saw that I got E.J Caswell's name. I got excited for a moment because I've had a huge crush on him ever since he bought me that plane ticket during the fall musical. It was such a nice thing to do.

 After the Drama Club meeting ended I walked out of the theater and  thought to myself, what would I get E.J Caswell for Christmas? He practically has everything that he wants. I need advice from Ashlyn.

While I was thinking about E.J's gift, I saw Ashlyn walk by me and decided to ask her what E.J would like for Christmas.

"Hey Ash, do you have a moment? I need some advice."

"Yeah sure. What's up?"

"What does E.J want for Christmas? Please help me with this secret snowflake thing. You know him better than I do." I begged her while whispering to make sure no one around us heard.

"If I'm going to be honest with you, Gina, E.J doesn't like Christmas. I don't think it's a good idea to get him anything. He just likes to be alone on that day. You might not even want to bring it up to him. It's personal stuff."

"Why doesn't he like Christmas? Everyone loves Christmas."

"If I tell you, you have to promise not to tell anyone else not even E.J he will come hunt me down. He really doesn't like opening up and talking about it. I really shouldn't even be telling you."

"I swear. I won't tell anyone. I promise. Is it that bad?"

"It's a sad story." Ashlyn replied biting one of her nails.

"Oh. Well, I want to be to get him the perfect gift, but I need to know why he doesn't like Christmas."

**********

Ashlyn's POV:

From a young age E.J loved to celebrate every holiday on the calendar including St. Patrick's Day and April Fool's day, but there was only one holiday that he despised the most which was Christmas Day. He didn't like all the Christmas lights, carols, food, and festivities. He just wanted to be alone on that day. Why may you ask? Well, let me recall Christmas 2010 at the Caswell's.

Christmas 2006: E.J is 8 years old

E.J and I were playing in the snow one day, making snow angels and throwing snowballs at each other. My Uncle was plowing the snow with my dad. It seemed like a scene taken out of a snow globe. Everything was perfect.

I was about to make a giant snowball to throw at E.J when my mom came out and whispered something to my dad and Uncle. Neither E.J nor I knew what was going on. E.J continued to make snowballs to throw at me while this was going on and didn't realize that his dad had gone inside. I noticed that my dad was watching us play in the snow but looked very sad.