Unforeseen

Chapter 18- First Christmas

Jayden woke up early.

There were no nightmares or anything unpleasant that would've warranted an early awakening, instead, her whole body buzzed with excitement before her groggy mind could figure out why. 

She groaned and turned over to her side, squinting, she noted her surroundings were caliginous, dawning light peaked from behind her curtains, giving her enough light to catch sight of her clock displaying 6 AM. Her first instinct was to relax back into dreamless sleep but just before she could, her mind caught up to why she woke up in the first place.

Christmas.

A spike of exhilaration overcame her and she leapt out of bed, albeit clumsily so, almost falling flat onto her face as her legs became tangled in her fallen bed sheets. She hurried off the floor and over to the window, it was just as she hoped, the snow from yesterday's downfall was still there. Giddiness hit her, her first Christmas was a snowy one.

She spun on her heel and ran straight to the living room, the glorious tree while unlit stood proudly by the windows, guarding the colourful wrappings of presents by its feet. There were many of them and she could hardly believe that some of them had her name on. Hers.

She could barely breathe. She had presents. Actual presents. Not figments of hopeful imagination of the time she had come to learn of the joyful celebration. She paused in a small reminiscence, it was almost a kind of bittersweet, she and Curls had once talked about it and wondered what it would be like to be a part of it. Now only one of them was here to experience it.

She sat cross-legged in front of the tree, biting her lip in indecisiveness, her fingers twitched from where they clutched her knees; itching to rip open the packages and discover what they were hiding within. She knew she should wait for the adults to wake but the idea of opening her first present was too tempting.

Almost thoughtlessly, her arm stretched out and moved towards the first gift she saw that had her name on its label. As her fingertips brushed over the red packaging, a noise from behind made her arm snap back.

"Hey! Hands off the presents!"

She turned wide-eyed at Tony standing at the doorway with his hands on his hips. "I-
It was only going to be one"

"Nu-uh, you've gotta wait till Pep gets up" he tutted, making large strides towards the sofa and sitting down, twisting to face her.

"But-but it's my first present ever."

"Which is precisely why she wouldn't want to miss it"

She glanced at the present in the utmost longing before looking back at Tony with the biggest puppy eyes she could muster.

"Nu-uh, those cute, green eyes won't work with me today. My fear of Pep vastly outweighs whatever those doe eyes are trying to tell me"

Jayden reluctantly pulled away from the tree, hugging her knees and staring at the presents. "I never thought I would have presents"

"You thought we'd just pass today by without thinking of you?" He questioned in disbelief.

"No. I mean we- I used to dream for it but I would never believe it would actually happen" she answered, her stinging eyes glued to the presents. "Presents, Santa, Christmas... it just felt like fairy tales. Something I could never have"

"Happy to be the one to prove you wrong"

"It feels too good to be true sometimes. Not just Christmas, all of this" she circled her wrist, gesturing to the penthouse around them.  "It feels like it's going to be suddenly ripped away and-and I'm going to wake up in the lab like nothing ever happened."