Jewel

Chapter 2

*4 years old, Christmas time*

It's almost Christmas and our first Christmas in Oregon! There has been so much snow and Blake and I play out in the snow almost every day and we drink lots of hot chocolate and eat mommy chocolate chip cookies.

I really like playing with Blake. He plays with me more than Jackson.

Today is my daddy's work party that he has every year. It's where all the people from daddy's work at the publishing center come over for desserts and stuff. It's also one of the only days besides the holidays that I get to see my daddy for more than an hour.

Mommy helps me get dressed in my red, black, and gold plaid short sleeved dress and black tights. She pulls my hair into a half-up, half-down hair style and ties a pretty red bow in the top. Jackson is usually dressed to match me, but this year he just has a plain red sweater vest with a white button shirt underneath and black pants.

"Okay, Mere, now remember, just be smiley, beautiful you" mommy tells me and kisses my cheek before leading me out of my bedroom to go downstairs. There are a lot of people walking around in suits and white gloves and there are several tables being set up around the house with plates of fruits and crackers and cheese.

Blake might be able to come by after dinner his mommy said. I really hope he does. I never like these parties very much. I usually just wander around and try not to bump into anyone. There was one lady Olivia from daddy's other office who would always bring Jackson and I special chocolate and sit and talk with us for a bit away from all the grownups. She was my favorite.

I am tracing the lining on the tile floor with the tip of my black ballet flat when the doorbell rings for the first time of the night. Daddy comes rushing into the foyer, fixing his tie. "It's show time, Mere bear." He swings the door open and a man and woman step into the house. They are immediately greeted with a glass of something bubbly from one of the waiters and are escorted into the living room. They don't really notice me as they walk by even though I wave politely like mommy told me to.

Maybe I'm just too short they didn't see me.

I go back to tracing the tiles with my toes and hold onto the stair railing to keep my balance. Jackson comes running around the corner for no reason and pushes me, "Gotcha!" and he sprints upstairs.

"Hey!" I squeal as I fall on my bum. I quickly get up and smooth out my dress before running after him. "That wasn't nice, Jackson!"

"I'm not supposed to be nice. I'm your brother." He smirks at me.

"No, you are supposed to be nice to me because you're my brover." I pout and cross my arms over my chest.

"No, you're just annoying." He pushes me again.

"No, you're annoying" I push him back.

"Hey, hey, hey, what is going on in here?" Mommy rushes into the room.

We both point at each other and at the same time say, "S/he started it!"

"Jackson" mommy warns firmly.

"Why do you always think it's me?!"

"Because it was you! You pushed me down stairs, then pushed me again right here." I pout.

"Okay, okay, enough. This is supposed to be a nice night for your father. Keep it up and Blake won't come over and both of you will be in your room tonight." I wear the deepest scowl on my face. It's not fair! I always get in trouble too even when it was all Jackson's fault. Gosh, I don't like my brover.

I huff and run into my room and shut the door behind me without another word.

Mommy comes in after a few minutes and tries to coax me out, but I don't want to go. If I'm alone in my room, I can't get in trouble and Blake can still come over. I look at the clock, 6:02 p.m. That means only.... 28 more minutes before Blake will be done with dinner.

I flop onto my back on my princess canopy bed and watch the fan go around in circles over and over and over. I am sprawled out like a star fish on my bed and rock my ankles back and forth to help pass the time.

The next time my door opens, it's Blake. He came! He is wearing a red sweater vest just like Jackson except it has diamond pattern outlined in gold.

"Lake! I'm so glad you could still come!" I jump off my bed and run to hug him.

"What do you mean still come?"

"Jackson tried to get me in trouble earlier so that you wouldn't come. But it didn't work!"

"Well obviously not cos I'm here, duh" he laughs and I giggle too. "So what do we do now?"

"I dunno. There are a lot of people I don't down downstairs and they're kind of boring."

"But I saw chocolate!" he draws out the word chocolate with big eyes. Almost as if we got the same idea at the same time, we run to open the door and fly down stairs. Then when we get to the bottom, we stop short and look around assessing the area. All the girls seem to be wearing black or red dresses and has her arm linked with the guy standing next to her. Everyone has a glass of that bubbly juice in his glass and there is soft music playing in the background.

"Shall we?" Blake asks in a posh British accent and holds out his arm to me.

"We shall" I giggle and link my arm with his. We squeeze through groups of people and again nobody bothers to say hi until we get to the table with the chocolate fountain.

Blake and I try to reach up on the table to grab a plate and a stick to poke the strawberries with, but we're too short. That's when a nice lady offers to help us and we load up two full plates each, then dart back upstairs to my room without mommy seeing us.

We spend the rest of the night just playing together with his soldier toys and my Barbie dolls. I make him pretend they get married and have a baby. But Blake gets bored with the game pretty quick, so we change to pretend warfare on either side of my bed and watching TV.

We finally take a break after a while and end up falling asleep. I sure hope this will be a night our mommy's let us have another spend the night party. We've had one almost every week since we met and we switch between my house and his. Last time it was at mine, but hopefully mommy will let him stay. I'm so glad I have Blake as my friend.

A/N:

Double update because I'm just so excited to be writing this story. Hope you all are enjoying!

~Bri