High School Hockey Boys

17

Christmas had come in gone in a blur. I'd gone shopping with the girls, helped decorate Mom's house and Dad's. I'd eaten more food than my stomach could handle. But it had been fun. Since school was out until just after New Year, the girls were over almost everyday. We had a three day sleepover. Christmas at Mom's house was done Christmas Eve so the girls could be with their families on the twenty-fifth. James also stayed the night Christmas Eve. Mom was terrified his parents would be angry that he was still with us, but he'd told her they were fine with it. I was a little suspicious of that one, though. James didn't talk about his family much and sometimes I got the feeling he was hiding something. But that was none of my business.

On Christmas Eve Mom made dinner for everyone. We made hot cocoa and cookies and a whole bunch of junk that none of us needed but all of wanted. There were Christmas carols playing on the small radio in the kitchen, those cheesy Hallmark movies that make you cringe so hard your shoulders eat your ears were running on the Woman's Network all day.

There was terrible singing, a small food fight James did not appreciate (he totally had fun), and I apparently napped through a reenactment of Romeo and Juliet: Winter Edition.

After dinner and dessert the seven of us gathered around the tree to exchange gifts. No surprise, I got a lot of baby supplies. There were toys, blankets; Delaney even bought clothes, even though it was far too early to be able to tell what the baby would be. Sophia bought me a sweater with, "There are no rules in this house. I'm not like a regular mom, I'm a cool mom." printed on the front. James had handed me his gift rather shyly. He'd only been here a few weeks, and I honestly hadn't expected more than a card from him. Maybe a gift card to my favorite coffee shop. We didn't know each other that well. But I was pleasantly surprised that he'd found two books I'd been wanting for a while (a tip from Mom probably) and a pair of really nice sweatpants. I was sure Mom helped him with that one.

All in all, this had been one of the best Christmases I'd had since my parents divorced. Christmas day the girls all left to be with their families. Mom, James and I had been invited over to Dad and Hermione's for lunch. It had been a bit awkward at first, what with James being our newest addition. But Hermione took it in stride and Dad tried his best to connect with him despite their only commonality being Mom.

There was a small gift exchange. Hermione had managed to sneak a baby related thing into their gift to me without Dad noticing. I opened that one at home.

The rest of the day was spent cuddled up with Mom on the couch watching our favorite Christmas movies and eating leftovers. James had gone home after lunch to call his parents to check in and wish them a Merry Christmas.

~*~

"Are you sure you're up for it?" Harper asked again.

"Yes! We've done it everywhere, why should this one be any different?" I said.

It was New Year's Eve. Every year since we were kids Harper, Delaney, Sophia, Kennedy and I would get dinner at Lucille's. It was the diner where Harper, Sophia and I all met. Our families had been there separately. At the time, Harper had been a particularly rambunctious child. Mom and I were walking back from the bathroom when Harper had flown around the corner of a booth and knocked straight into me. We both went down, but not before taking a waitress and the tray she was carrying with us. There had been a strawberry milkshake on that tray, and Harper—as well as myself (by association)—had ruined Sophia's pretty new white dress with it. It had fallen off the tray and landed right in her lap.

Naturally, all of our parents had been horrified. They'd apologized to the waitress and to Rob, the owner. But to everyone's surprise, there had been no crying from me (who had scraped my elbow off the corner of an empty booth bench) and no screaming from Sophia over her ruined dress. She'd taken one long look at the two of us on the floor and decided then and there we would be her friends. The rest was history.