Christmas at Royal Woods Spa

Frostbite

Friday

Lola yawned and stretched. She laid there feeling the rejuvenation of ten hours of uninterrupted beauty sleep. She rolled over to thank Lana for not waking her up when she got back from doing whatever she was doing.

She lifted up her sleep mask to see that Lana wasn't in bed. Had she slept in? No, the alarm clock read half past six. She must have left before her. She threw off the covers and stepped onto the floor and put on her usual pink dress. She left the room as her other siblings left theirs as well heading for the elevator. They called an elevator and all stepped in.

"Morning Lol's," Luna said to her as the doors closed.

"Good morning to you too."

"How'd you sleep?"

"Slept like a baby. Say, have you seen Lana come by?"

"Nope."

The doors slid open and they spilled out into the hallway towards the diner. As they passed through the atrium they saw that the Christmas Tree had been replaced, albeit bare of any decoration. They entered the diner and took their seats at the table. Lily was already at her high chair and their parents at a nearby table talking.

Looking down at her plate she saw she had been given a pancake with a dollop of whip cream adorned with a strawberry. She looked around at her siblings and saw that their meals were also thought out, a step above yesterday's oatmeal. Over at the other table Mom nodded to Dad. He stood up and walked up to the table and made a coughing noise to get their attention.

"Uh, good morning everyone," he began. There were a few returns of the greeting, then silence.

He swallowed, trying to think of the right words to say. "I, uh, just wanted to say that," before stopping again.

"I'm just going to cut to the chase. I wanted to apologize for being so over the top on Wednesday. I shouldn't have yelled, and I said and done some things that I shouldn't have."

He looked at Leni. "Leni, I want to apologize to you especially. I know that you would never let Lily be hurt, and I'm sorry for saying otherwise. You can watch over Lily again."

"O-M-Gosh! Thank you, thank you, thank you!" Leni squealed. Dad, emboldened by Leni's joyous outburst, went on.

"As I'm sure you guys have seen, I brought in a new tree last night. I wanted to top it off by having us all decorate it together."

Lola and the rest of them cheered. Dad watched them waiting for the clamor to die down. "After we're all here, of course. Lola, have you seen Lana anywhere?"

"No I haven't. She wasn't in the room when I woke up."

"Oh. Has anyone else seen her?" They only shook their heads. "Oh. We'll just have to find her then."

"Maybe she's just outside. I can go check," Lincoln volunteered.

"Thank you Lincoln. And if she is out there bring her in quickly, I don't want her catching a cold."

Lincoln stood up and walked out of the diner. Dad stood around for a little while afterwards before going back to sit with Mom. Lola looked back down to her breakfast and finally began to eat her pancake.

Lincoln walked over to the tiled floor of the entrance, towards the jumble of winter clothes by the plush chairs. He stuck his hand into the mound and pulled out his pair of winter boots and hat. He wouldn't be needing the rest, he wouldn't be outside for that long. He stepped into one of the boots, then the other before leaving.