Eleanor's life is not exactly pleasant. She works for rich men, has to do all kinds of odd jobs, and if she does anything wrong she gets beaten, or worse. The men tell her that her parents left her, and they had debts to them and therefore Eleanor h...
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"It's time for the presents!" Squeals Emilio enthusiastically and he runs to the Christmas tree. The Christmas tree that we only decorated an hour ago because all my brothers were durk busy with their work so they have today and tomorrow off.
"Oh no," sighs Valentino. I frown confusedly. Valentino had to have seen my questioning face because he starts to explain. "Every year emilio buys us presents that we don't want," now mojn frown gets bigger.
"Huh?" Confused, I look at Emilio who is looking at me with a grin on his face. And then he winks! Oh he just lied to me and now in have bought stupid presents for everyone.
"Okay okay I think I get to hand out my presents first!" Says Emilio enthusiastically.
"No I think Eleanor should go first," Matteo counters Emilio. Emilio pulls a pout like little kids always do.
"But I wanted to go first,"
"Bad luck," says Riccardo shrugging his shoulders.
"So I have to... give my presents first?" I ask a little nervously. They're not going to like it because Emilio helped me with the presents, well actually emilio just chose all the presents and I just put wrapping paper around them.
"Yep!" I get up from the seat and walk over to the Christmas tree, where emilio is still standing.
"Who should I give his present to first?" I ask him in a whisper. Emilio makes a thinking face for a moment before turning around and pulling out a present from under the tree.
"Matteo's," Emilio has me the package for Matteo. With the present in my hands I walk over to Matteo. As soon as Matteo realizes it's for him he gets a big smile on his face and looks at the present curiously. I hand him the present with the beautiful yellow wrapping paper of a plastic duckling.
"Thank you Sorellina," smiles Matteo. Still. Probably that smile will go off his face soon. Matteo begins to tear the wrapping paper and as soon as he sees what it is his mouth falls open in surprise.
"Oh oh, what is it?" Asks Leonardo enthusiastically.
"Why is he looking so weird?" Whispers Alessandro to Riccardo, Riccardo growls something unintelligible in reply.
"Show us!" Says Emilio enthusiastically, even though he knows what it is. Matteo does as asked and holds up his present for all to see. It's a black kitchen apron with the words "my cooking is so good, even the smoke alarm cheers me on," and everyone laughs.
"I can't believe our sister gave you that!" Laughs Alessandro. After everyone has laughed Emilio hands me the next present and I immediately know it's Riccardo's. I walk over to Riccardo and hand him the present. Riccardo carefully opens it and remains standing like frozen when he sees that there is nothing inside. Alessandro who is sitting next to him immediately starts laughing very hard.
"You've got to be kidding me!" He laughs. Shut up Alessandro i'm still mad at you.
"Just kidding!" I Smile . Riccardo looks at me and the corners of his mouth curl up.
"What a little joker you are," Riccardo mutters. I pull a piece of paper from my pocket.
"This is your real present," I hand him the folded up piece of paper. Riccardo mumbles eeb thanks and then opens the piece of paper. As soon as he reads what's on it he just stares at the piece of paper. My hands start to sweat and immediately all kinds of thoughts run through me. He doesn't like it. I thought so hard about his present and wanted to give him something personal because he has always been there for me and he doesn't like it.
"If you don't like it then-" I start but Riccardo interrupts me.
"Can I have a free hug already?" He interrupts me and he holds up the piece of paper that says 'free hugs, as long as you have this piece of paper'. Surprised, I stare at him. He likes it? Riccardo opens his arms welcomingly and hesitantly I take a step closer to him and wrap my arms around his neck. Immediately Riccardo wraps his arms protectively around me and pulls me closer to him, as a result I lose my balance and fall giggling into his lap. I try to get back up, but Riccardo continues to hold me tightly and presses a kiss against my temple before bringing his lips to my ear.
"Best present ever, thank you El," he whispers in my ear.
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"Now it's time for our family tradition!" Emilio excitedly jumps off the seat and grabs the guitar that was in the corner of the room and hands it to Valentino.
"Family tradition?" I ask. Riccardo leans forward, I've been sitting on his lap since the hug an all the time and it's like I can't leave him.
"Every year at Christmas we sing the twelve days of chritsmas but make our own version and the one who forgets something first has to clean up all the wrapping paper that's on the floor here," Riccardo explains. I look at the ground, which you can hardly see through all the wrapping paper. I really don't want to lose. Valentino starts playing his guitar.
"May the worst lose," sings Leonardo.
"On the first day of Christmas my stupid brother gave to me," Lorenzo begins to sing. Surprised, I look at him. I wasn't expecting this. "A rose bath duck," Lorenzo finishes his piece.
"On the second day of Christmas my stupid brother gave to me, a stupid pack of cheese and a red rubber duck," Valentino sings. And then I realize that they are singing about the stupid presents that they got from Emilio so the stupid brother they are singing about is Emilio. This is really great.
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A/N: i know i know this chapter is boring and short but THE NEXT CHAPTER IS GONNA BE DIFFERENT
I hope you all had great holidays and 2022 is gonna be a great year for all of you with lots of love. 2022 is the year to become a better version of yourself, take care of yourself, eat healty, drink enough water and get rid of those toxic people in your life.
