Snowfall

Part 6

Next day at breakfast Melony runs over with her beanie.

"Okay okay okay everyone take a slip." Confused, I put my hand inside the beanie which is serving as some sort of basket and pull of a piece of paper. Everyone does the same and we all read them to ourselves. "Secret Santa time everybody! Now did anyone get their own name?" We all shake our heads. "Perfect!" I open my slip of paper. Sara. Great I have absolutely no idea what to get her, I know her the least out of everyone. Maggie likes mugs and scarves. Melony likes stuffed toys. Elizabeth doesn't seem to care about anything and would be happy with anything food-related. And Elliot, well he likes all the same stuff I do. But Sara? Geez I have no idea.

After breakfast we all get ready for the day and I walk down the corridors until I come across Maggie.

"Maggie hey do you have a sec?" She smiles.

"Oh yeah sure Katie what's up?" I look around and make sure I can't see her anywhere. The coast is clear.

"Okay, probs should be mentioning this but I got Sara for secret Santa and I have no idea what to get her." Maggie giggles.

"Oh Sara is the easy one, jewellery and nail polish are her favourites. She really likes navy blue, just get her that and she will honestly love you forever." Okay that isn't so bad.

"Awesome thanks Maggie I owe you one." Blue nail polish. How hard can that be?

...

Okay so on the weekend, one of Melony's old friend's parents (get that tree diagram in your head) drove us into town to do some shopping.

"Alright everyone." Melony addresses everyone in the car, "When we get to town we all need to scatter, make sure no one sees you buying anything. If you have to, put it back and go buy it later so that they don't get any ideas okay?" We all nod.

Okay so navy-blue nail polish is actually impossible to find. They have baby blue, and sky blue, and pastel blue. Even a nice glittery blue but literally no navy anywhere. It took me looking though 4 cosmetic stores before I found something decent. Next, I decided to get Sara a bracelet with her name on it. Unfortunately, as I was looking at all the pre-made bracelets I saw that they all spell Sara with a h on the end, so I bought a plain one and had them engrave it themselves. It cost a little extra but I don't mind, I'm lucky I have one of those generic names that is stamped on every bracelet, t shirt, mug, and backpack you will ever find.

We finish up at about 3 ish in the afternoon and get driven back to the boarding school. We hang out in the dorm areas for a couple of hours until dinner. Then after dinner we all migrate to the library.

"Alright guys let's do the Secret Santa reveals." We all look at Melony.

"Melony you realise Christmas isn't until next month, right?" She sighs.

"Yes I know but I just hate suspense so let do it now!" We laugh and go fetch our presents and bring them back down. We sit in a circle and place them in the middle, with our eyes closed of course so we don't see whose is whose. Melony insisted. We open our eyes, and everyone scrambles to the middle. I put out a rectangular brown paper package with my name written on the front. Everyone starts unwrapping theirs in a frenzy but for some reason I am just inclined to hold onto mine as it is for the moment. We go around the circle guessing who got what. Melony is first. She has a giant teddy with a knitted scarf around its neck.

"Maggie. Definitely Maggie the scarf is handmade I can tell." Maggie nods and Melony attacks her with a hug. Sara is next. I wait in anticipation as she unwarps the present, waiting for her reaction.

"Oh my god this is so beautiful!" She pulls out the bracelet and puts it on. She looks around the circle.

"Melony? Maggie would have been my guess, but she's been taken..." I put my hand up.

"It was me." Sara's eyes widen in surprise. "I did have to get help from Maggie though I'm sorry, I didn't know what to get you and I wanted to make sure it was something that you liked." Sara smiles.

"This is amazing thank you! How did you find something with my name on it they-"

"Always spell it with a h on the end. Yeah, I found that out the hard way, so I had them personally engrave it for you." I interrupt. "I hope you like it." She looks up.

"Katie, I love it thank you so much." She gives me a quick hug and then it's my turn. I carefully unwrap the package and pull out a hardcover notebook. I open it up to find a note on the first page.

These moments are not stories. I am here and I am looking at her and she is so beautiful. I can see it. This one moment when you know you are not a sad story, you are alive. And you stand up and see the lights on the buildings and everything that makes you wonder. And you're listening to that song on that drive with the people that you love most in this world. And in this moment, I swear we are infinite...

I set the book down and wipe my eyes with my sleeve, as they are tearing up. Without needing to ponder or guess I straight up.

"Thank you Elliot. It's beautiful." He nods. Everyone looks at us puzzledly before Elizabeth moves on to opening her present. I'm pretty sure she got four blocks of chocolate and a big bag of lollies from Melony, and that Maggie got a wool blanket and beanie from Sara. And Elizabeth got her brother something joke related which made everyone laugh but I have simply lost the ability to focus on anything but my gift. Selfish I know. But it just seems like something so much more than a more with a quote inside. It seems so... personal. And I can't stop thinking about it. Because here I am with these amazing group of friends all talking and laughing, and I can't help feeling like this is just one of those infinite moments Charlie talks about in the book. It feels special.