Dirty Laundry by Gibslythe

Day 8 Ch. 30

3:21 P.M.

Danny and the other tree goers arrived back to the Sanchez house hours after dinner. They'd stayed out far longer than they'd been allowed, due to a certain few of them (Benji and Cleo) initiating a game of hide and seek in the Christmas tree field. That game had lasted hours, eventually morphing into a game of tag. Lance and Keith's competitive nature had lead them into forming alliances, in the end creating two teams. For the record; Keith, Cleo and Danny won. They'd also picked up McDonalds on the way home (against Keith and Danny's wishes) and in the end the whole group got McFlurries.

Despite arriving three hours later than planned, they still managed to deliver a quality tree to the house. It was a good fit, a tall one with a medium width. Benji and Lance had bickered profusely over which tree to choose, and in the end Cleo chose promptly out of spite.

"So," Rosa called as she came out of the garage to greet them, a Christmas apron tied around her torso. It appeared they'd retrieved the christmas boxes from the attic. "Did you all have fun?"

Her question was answered when Sophia and Benji revealed themselves from behind the truck, Benjamin positioned under Sophia's nasty headlock. The boy was cackling at something he'd said, Sophia merely reacting with a smirk on her face.

Rosa raised an eyebrow at Danny, asking for an explanation. Obviously she needed one, not only five hours ago the two siblings refused to speak to each other.

"Bonding, Mamá ." Danny shrugged and slammed the truck door behind him. "It worked."

After several motherly scoldings from Rosa, the group was finally able to calm down and transport the tree from the bed of the truck and into the living room. Josie and the other children squealed when the large tree was placed in the living room, Mateo already wearing antler ears on his head.

"Keith!" Mateo screamed, racing to grab the older boy's pants. "I'm a reindeer, see?" He pointed to the antlers on his head, most likely a head piece the child had found at the very bottom of a christmas box. It looked around fifteen years old, wire poking through the faded fabric.

Keith smiled down at the boy and ruffled his hair, messing up the antler ears in the process. "You just need a red nose and you'll be Rudolph."

Mateo suddenly gripped Keith's hand, pulling him towards the other boxes. "You need one too! We are boyfriends, Keith. Boyfriends always match."

Keith chuckled at that, realizing that he was already roped in. He'd have no choice now, there'd be antlers on his head in record time.

Once Benji grabbed his guitar from the bedroom, the family jumped into the festivities. Keith discovered that Benji was a very talented guitar player, and additionally had a soothing singing voice, far different from when he rapped. Although it wasn't the most beautiful voice in the world, Benji was far more musical than Lance. Benji and Abuela Sanchez led several songs, Spanish and English versions of each. Keith particularly enjoyed the ones in Spanish, as he loved listening to Rosa sing in her native tongue. She was a wonderful singer, though her voice was a lot deeper than expected, and often the words rolled off her tongue pleasantly. Keith found that he loved listening to Rosa, as her smiled glowed just a tad brighter.

There were numerous decorations, all of them ancient and held with sentimental value. There was a medium sized nativity set that Rosa took a special loving to, or a 'nacimiento' as the family called it. It was made of clay and placed on the fireplace, surrounded by holly and Christmas lights. Rosa told Keith the story of how it had belonged to her mother, and her grandmother before her. She'd chuckled heartily when mentioning how Benji, Lance VC and their cousins had gotten in trouble as children for accidentally dropping the baby Jesus piece. (Keith had giggled at this, especially because you could still see the crack lines from when the piece had been superglued back together.)