Cinderella's Twist

chapter twenty-four: family bear hug

"Ugh, it's finally Christmas!" I exclaim. 

"It's actually Christmas Eve," Sanders corrects and hands me the green icing bag.

I pipe it around the Christmas tree sugar cookie. "Hush."

"It's not even Christmas Eve," Brian corrects with a laugh.

"It's still daytime," Sully agrees, nodding.

"Guys, you know I love Christmas! Stop crushing my dreams," I pout as I decorate my tony cookie with special sprinkles and put it on the rack.

"You and mom make us do all of this mess every single year," Dad says shaking his head as he mixes the new batch of icing and trying to instruct Chance on how to properly decorate a gingerbread man.

"I don't make you do it. You guys enjoy it," I say and grab another cookie.

"Now, we most definitely do not," Ricky states and the boys murmur in agreement.

I gape at them and slam the icing bag down. "Then get out of the kitchen. I'll finish the cookies with mom myself."

"Jackie, we're just saying that we don't like it as much as you think we do," Freddy tries to explain.

"Yeah, it's not that we hate Christmas r anything. There's just a lot of pointless things we do today. Mom even says we can leave the house and do stuff today and just be back for dinner and our normal traditions," Lucas says quietly.

"I said get out!" I yell.

All of them leave including dad. 

"Okay, so I checked the cabinet and it turns out we do still have those super cute pepper--" mom starts saying excitedly and she looks up and her face drops. "Well, where did they go?"

"They don't like doing this. I told them to leave," i say with a shrug and focus on my intricate piping.

"Well I knew that silly," she says with a laugh and puts the peppermint candies on the counter. "Boys, come in here!"

"What?"

"I know they don't like doing this," she says simply. 

The boys walk in and dad peeks around the corner like he's scared of me or something. The stop and look between mom and I.

"Tel your sister why you do this stuff every year even though you hate it," mom instructs.

"It makes you happy," Sanders says with a shrug. 

"You don't have a sister to do all of this with so we step in and try to fill that role. That doesn't mean we have to enjoy something as long as it makes you happy," Ricky says.

"I'm an idiot" I groan and put my face in my hands. "I love you guys."

"Well, duh," Lucas says walking in farther and hugging me like a bear. 

"We already knew that," Freddy says walking over and hugging us too.

"Family bear hug!" Sanders yells and all of them diver into us squeezing everyone tightly.

Mom looks at dad and dad looks at mom. "Should we tell them?" dad asks.

"We don't have a choice," mom laughs.

We drop out of our bear hug and look at mom and dad. Mom wraps her arms around dad and his arm settles around her. 

"What is it?" Brian asks curious.

"Don't say you're pregnant," Sanders says flatly.

"Well, there's that too," mom says with a smile.

I gasp and cover my mouth smiling. "You're pregnant!"

"Oh sweet Jesus," Lucas says covering his eyes and dropping his hand. "Guess we're sharing a room, Sanders."

"Guess so," Sanders says with a shrug.

"Wait you said there's that 'too'. What else is there?" Ricky asks.

Mom and dad smile.

"The county called. They have a baby. Two months old. They said we'd be perfect for her," dad says.

"Her?" I ask hopefully.

Mom nods. "We said yes. They called when the mom was going into labor. The baby was a premie so we had to get her. I just found out I was pregnant at the time. It was weird because the doctor said I couldn't get pregnant because of my age and after Chance. We waited until the end of the first trimester which was yesterday to tell you."

"This is crazy," Sully says running his hands through his hair. 

"We won't be able to watch out for her like we did for Lynn," Lucas says.

"You guys won't but Chance, Brian, Sully, and Freddy can," mom says. SHe looks at all of us. "Are you guys okay with this?"

"Of course mom," Ricky says. "Our family can get bigger if it needs to."

"Good, we're getting the baby later tonight," dad says. "After Noah takes you out."

I look at them surprised. "Me?"

Mom smiles. "Yes, you. He said he has a surprise."

"Oh, okay then."

***

Sure enough, later that night, Noah knocks on the front door and my dad answers it just as I walk into the room. My mom told me to wear a dress and look nice. I searched through my closet trying to find a nice a nice dress and I finally settle on a white lace dress that has short sleeves. I left my hair down and put on red lipstick to be in the festive spirit. I paired it off with red heeled ankle boots. Noah is wearing khaki skinny jeans with a white button down shirt that is tucked in and a red bowtie. 

I smile at him as I walk in and he mirrors it. "Merry Christmas."

"Merry Christmas, Red," he says back.

"Have fun sweetheart," dad says and kisses my cheek. "I'll wait for you until you get home."

"Thanks, dad," I say and walk with Noah hand and hand until we reach his motorcycle.

"So, what sparked this sudden need for an adventure?" I ask stopping in front of his bike. "i thought we agreed to see each other tomorrow at your parents with my family."

"We did, but I want to see you personally. I mean it's our first Christmas together. Might as well make it a memorable one," he says and winks at me before handing me a helmet. I smirk and pull it over my head and climb onto the back of it. I wrap my arms around his waist and he drives down the road. 

I watch as we go into the city and watch him pull up to the theater. My mom used to take me here every year but then she had Chance and stopped. We used to watch The Nutcracker on Christmas Eve every year. She would buy snacks from CVS and sneak them in because they were cheaper than the ones inside. 

"Noah, what are we doing here?" I ask confused.

"Your mom told me how much it used to mean to you when you would come here every year," Noah says taking my hand and walking with me up the stairs. "So I told her I was going to take you. I know about Chance and the cancer."

I give him a solemn look and open my mouth to explain but he holds up his hand. 

"You don't need to explain. I know it was probably hard for you to tell me. I knew something was wrong with him so I asked your mom which led to her telling me about this so i bought the tickets." he explains.

"Noah, you really didn't have to do this," I say with a smile.

"I wanted to. Now come on. We're going to be late for the show."