Your Princess is in Another Castle

1-3

The Christmas holiday was almost upon them, today was the last day at school. With this, Arnold packed the gifts he had got his friends, the Lego set for Will, but he also had made a wallet for Malcolm out of leather and a wooden chest for Jason to contain some of his joke items in them. He had also got them all cards as they were fairly cheap to buy, he put all this stuff in a separate bag as he didn't have room for it all with his books and lunch. Luckily this morning his brothers had gotten up early and made it into the bathroom before Freda and so he didn't have too long to wait around before they could get underway. They made it to school in good time and he saw that his friends were still outside, huddled together as it was getting colder and talking amongst themselves. He went over to them with a big smile and uttered his greetings to them. They made a hole for him to admit him into their circle and gave back his hello's.

"How's it going, Arnold?" Will asked.

"Not too bad, how about you guys?" he asked.

"Bit chilly but otherwise ok" Will replied.

"It's not even cold yet, just you wait till we get snow," Malcolm said.

"Then you won't notice the cold as you'll be having too much fun running around and pelting each other with snowballs whilst I'll be chilling down in Florida which doesn't get cold," Jason said.

"That's true, it's a shame you have to go down there, man and miss out on all of that but there might still be snow around when you get back," Arnold said.

"I hope so, we've not had much yet like we did last year but there's still time for it to fall" Jason replied.

"What's in that bag?" Will asked.

"They are presents for you guys, I'll hand them out when we get inside" Arnold answered.

"You didn't need to get us anything man," Jason said.

"I didn't get you anything," Malcolm said.

"I know I didn't, but I wanted to thank Will for his gift last year with one this year and then I felt bad that I didn't get the rest of you something so hence you all getting something" Arnold replied.

"Well thanks, man, I would rather you have my old bike than giving it away to charity or even worse throwing it away and we've now had a lot of good times because of that" Will said.

"That we have and we'll have even more because of it," Arnold said.

"We certainly will, you've become an important member of this group," Jason said.

"That's for sure, we'd never have had the adventures we've had in the past year without you," Will said.

"I guess you're ok," Malcolm said.

"After all this time, you still don't like me much, but I feel like you're coming around," Arnold said.

"Just blame my dad, he's instilled this hatred in me and it's definitely not you," Malcolm said.

"It's alright man, I understand," Arnold said.

"We better head inside, it's almost time for class," Will said and the rest of them nodded and followed him inside.

The first two lessons past quickly as the teacher allowed them to do some fun learning activities rather than forcing them to do proper work. At break, Arnold handed out his gifts to the others. Will was happy with his as he didn't have that Lego set and it would make a good addition to his sets, Jason was quite surprised by the chest and how well it was made and said it would certainly make a good storage space for a few of his things. Malcolm was the most surprised by his gift and thanked Arnold for the wallet and said he would use it, they were all sorry that they hadn't even thought about getting him anything or each other, even cards. With Jason was leaving for Florida tomorrow he would have no chance of sorting anything out for him, but Arnold said he didn't mind, and Jason could just get him a postcard or something from Florida if he wanted to. Arnold said he honestly didn't mind that they hadn't got him anything because he was glad that he had friends now to share adventures with. They all hugged each other then and it was a good moment for all of them. Then the bell brought them back to the fact they were at school and they headed back into class.