The Claiming

Chapter Twenty-Four

A date is set.

April 10th, three days after my seventeenth birthday.

It's two days until Christmas, so that gives us plenty of time to plan a proper wedding—or should I say it gives Alec's mom plenty of time? She's already found some old wedding magazines at the bookstore in town, so she brought them over the day after we told Alice the final wedding date.

"Alec," I say through my teeth, "help!"

He chuckles from where he lounges on the sofa reading a book. "I thought you said you could do it on your own!"

I hold up the strand of Christmas lights hopelessly. "I'm lost without you," I say with a pathetic whimper.

Alec tosses his book onto the coffee table and walks over to the Christmas tree where I stand on a step stool holding the twinkling lights.

"You've obviously never done this, have you?" he asks, taking the lights from me. He starts to wrap them around the tree meticulously and without any effort. I step off the stool and lean against the wall.

"We never really celebrated much for Christmas in the Facility. We had Christmas service at church and a wreath on the front door of the Facility, but that's it."

"No stockings?"

I shake my head. "Nothing. No presents, no tree, no Christmas carols."

Alec's jaw drops. "Why didn't I know this? I've known you for three years and I'm just now finding out about this."

I laugh and walk up to him. I kiss him on the lips. "Riah and I never talked about it because it was... well, different. We knew that, but what were we going to do about it?"

He lifts my chin up to his lips again. "You know what this means? It means I'm going to give you the best Christmas in the whole entire world."

I laugh. "That would be a dream come true."

We finish (Alec finishes) putting the lights on the tree, and then we head out into town to buy ornaments and more decorations for our apartment. Alec's mother had dropped off the tree and lights because she had gone shopping and got a good deal on the two trees.

It's been a few weeks since we arrived in Winslow Wood, and I can honestly say I've never felt better here. A local businessman heard about our refugee family, and he immediately offered Alec a job as his paid intern. He wanted to train him himself, and when Alec found out, he was thrilled. He gets great pay and comes home with a smile on his face.

I, on the other hand, spend all day organizing our apartment. Mrs. Bentley comes over nearly every day with new things for our apartment, and then she stays for a couple more hours just to chat. I think she's lonely now that Mr. Bentley got a job teaching at the school.

Part of me really wants to work, too, but what can I do? I'm not good at anything. And that honestly really sucks.

We take the bus that stops by the apartments every half hour into the heart of the town. Within five minutes we're at the main shopping center and step off the bus, Alec holding tightly onto my hand.

Now, I've noticed that everywhere we go, people tend to stare at us in wonder, probably because we're still considered as "the newcomers" who don't really associate with others. But we try, honestly. Maybe it's the fact that we came from a tyrannical place as horrid as Bayfell. Alice said it would take time for the people of Winslow Wood to get used to us, but I had no idea it would take this long.

A group of teenagers about fourteen or fifteen blatantly pass judgmental glances at us as we cross the threshold of the store. Alec shepherds me in with his arm around my waist. "This really needs to stop," he mutters.

"We can't do anything about it, though," I sigh. "Eventually we'll blend in, at least Alice says so."

I imagine Alec growling under his breath, probably because he's the one who originally reminded me of that.

It takes me about thirty minutes to decide what ornaments I want on our tree, and I eventually choose the set I first saw. After that we pick out an angel tree topper and then head to check out.

Even the cashier gives us a funny look.

Alec finally bursts. "Why are you looking at us like that? It's not like we came from outer space!"

The cashier nervously avoids eye contact now and continues packing our items into the grocery bags. "I'm sorry," he says in a nasally voice. "We've just never had new people that weren't born here..."

I put my hand on Alec's arm before he can give a haughty retort. "It's fine," I say to the cashier. "Sorry."

As we leave, Alec passes more glares to the teenagers. The girls giggle this time, and the guys groan in annoyance. I glance over my shoulder to see them gazing at Alec.

"Hey, uh... I think they're past the fact that we're newcomers," I whisper.

We follow the sidewalk to the bus stop which is not far out of hearing distance from the front of the store.

"What makes you say that?" Alec asks.

"I've seen that look in those girls one other time before, and that was on Riah's face when she realized she was in love with Chance."

"Wait, you think—?"

I grin.

The entire bus ride home, Alec goes off on a tangent about how I should never have to worry about him cheating on me and all that. Of course I don't have to worry about it. The guy has more sense than that. I just let him ramble, though.

When we reach home, Alec and I finish up our decorating. He hangs up stockings above the little fireplace, and I put garland above the metal holders to hide them. When we finish the ornaments, we slump down on the sofa in exhaustion.

"Well this has been a productive day," he says with a smile at me.

I sigh and collapse onto my side, my head in his lap. "I'm ready for bed now!"

"It's five in the afternoon..."

"Sounds about right. Night!"

He chuckles. Then he pulls me into his arms so that he can lie behind me on the sofa. We both fall asleep like this—not entirely on purpose, but what do we care? It's a chance to sleep, and every teenager enjoys sleep.

We wake to a scream coming from the hallway, right outside our apartment door.