BAD WINTER ✓

Chapter 5

Ariana couldn't wait for her mother to finish spilling the rubbish in her mouth so that she could go back to sleep. It was finally Christmas day and she was dang tired.

"Did you decorate the house?" her mother asked.

Ariana groaned. How was she supposed to get out of this one? Luckily, she was able to come up with a quick lie. "Stan hasn't been free and you know I can't do all that work by myself."

"How am I sure that you didn't even send the poor boy home as soon as he came there?" Mrs Varner said.

Her daughter rolled her eyes. "Of course not. If I did that, he would be homeless for the holiday."

"Give him the phone," Melissa Varner ordered.

Ariana went up to Stan's room to give him the phone. She was silently grateful that he was at home. The cousins had envisaged that her mother would call for him on Christmas day, the reason he was in be house. She knocked briefly then went into the white room. Everything about Stan's room was white except his furniture which was caramel like the furniture in the living room. Ariana just handed him the phone and stepped outside so that they could talk.

Stanley came out about five minutes later. "Your mom should be a detective," was his first statement.

Ariana wasn't surprised. "I won't even ask you what questions she threw at you. I know that woman enough."

Stan put his arm on her shoulder. "Go back to sleep. Later, we can talk about why they think you can't stand me." They both laughed.

♦♦♦

"Merry Christmas!" The sound of Kristen's annoyingly loud voice was what greeted Ariana as she came down to have breakfast.

"Don't forget that I don't like Christmas," she reminded the annoying girl.

"Sorry. Your cousin made breakfast for us."

Nope, he made it for Camille, Ariana said in thought. She just nodded and headed into the kitchen. True to her thoughts, Stan and Camille were seated there, eating pancakes.

"Good morning," Camille greeted with a bright smile on her face.

"Good morning," the other girl replied, yawning. She filled her plate and joined them. Kristen brought herself in a moment later. They ate in silence.

♦♦♦

"Let's play a game, guys," Kristen said, interrupting the show they were watching. The three girls were seated in the sitting room, watching a movie.

"Okay," Camille said and turned to face the cause of the disturbance. Ariana put the TV off before following suit.

"What are we playing?" she asked.

"Truth or Dare," was the reply. She groaned internally. That was the last game she wanted to play but she had no strength to oppose.

"First question," Camille said.

"Camille, truth or dare?" Kristen asked.

"Dare."

"I dare you to give Ariana's cousin a bear hug." Ariana only managed to stiffle her laughter. Maybe the game wasn't going to be bad after all. Camille blushed and groaned at the same time. They all stood up and trouped to Stan's room. Camille knocked and as soon as he came out, she hugged him and ran away.

They continued to play when she came back. "Ariana, truth or dare?" Kristen asked.

"Truth."

"Why do you hate Christmas so much?"

Ariana hesitated for a minute. That was the least question she expected. "First of all, there isn't a place in the Bible where it was written that Jesus was born on the 25th of December so why do we celebrate it? Why do people go through unnecessarily extreme lengths just to celebrate it? Even if it was His birthday, do you think Jesus would want us to celebrate it like this? Think about that.

"Secondly, my parents take the festival too far, especially my mother. My main problem with her is that her domineering behavior makes her force me into a festival I don't even like. That's why I was overjoyed that they were going to be stuck in Africa for awhile."

The other two girls replied with an "oh." They were silent for a moment before proceeding. "Truth or Dare?" Camille asked Kristen.

"Truth," came the response.

"Why do you hate me so much?" Camille asked. Ariana  smiled at that. The girl was becoming bold enough to stand up for herself.

"What?" Kristen asked. Camille just kept silent and stared at her, so did Ariana. "Fine. I don't like you because you're too local. You're an embarrassment! How can you come to someone's house and keep looking around then when you're done, you say the house is beautiful? It makes others think you've never been in a house like this before!"

Camille was about to reply but Ariana beat her to it. "But you didn't consider yourself local when you were stopping to buy everything your eyes saw at the mall the other day."

Kristen's face turned red. "Well, at least I wasn't so careless to lose my boyfriend! If you had paid more attention to him, do you think he would be with senior Lily by now?"

"What do you know about that incident?" Ariana asked. Camille watched them in silence.

The other girl smirked triumphantly. "Senior Lily and I organized it all. The plan was for me to become your friend so that I could take your mind off him as she did her part, and it worked! When everything ended I wanted to leave you in your broken pieces but I just felt you could be useful. That's how I'm still here." She laid back on the couch to see her victim's reaction.

"Leave my house." At first, Kristen acted like she didn't hear anything because she felt like she wasn't hearing well. How could a sane human being chase her out into that freezing weather out there? "I said leave my house," Ariana repeated.

Kristen took interest in her nails like everyone else was forgotten. "I'm not leaving," she said in a bored tone. She felt a pull on her hair and next thing she was on the floor in a heavy heap. Ariana kicked her repeatedly until she was out of the house, then ran up to her room.