8 days to Christmas
**Lily's POV**
Noah is such a poop head.
He totally ruined Christmas for my brothers because he told me the big secret about Santa. Now he got in trouble with Jay-Jay and with Alex, and I think some of the other boys are also a bit angry with him. And they seem a bit sad. I was sad, too, at first, and also kinda grumpy, like Will, when I found out from Noah that Santa isn't really real. But when he s'plained it to me, it made sense to me, I think.
Because, how can there be one Santa and he is everywhere in the whole wide world at the same time, in all the houses and all the chimneys?
Sammy says it's because of magic.
I love magic!
But Aid told me a loooong time ago that there is no such thing as magic and that only itty bitty tiny babies believe in it.
And I am not a little baby anymore!
I like magic though and I think it would be cool if it was real.
Maybe it is real and Aidan just doesn't know it because he is also still a kid and doesn't know everything, even if he most of the time thinks he does. He also thinks he is a big kid already just because he is bigger than me but that is not true. Ben says not to listen to him and that it is nature-al that he is bigger and also stronger because he has been here on this planet two years longer than me.
And Ben must know way more things than Aidan, because he has been here on the planet forever. Because he's really old. Not as old as Alex and Jay-Jay though.
Jay-Jay was so mad when I asked him about Santa yesterday. I saw it in his face because he is really bad at hiding his 'motions.
He said Noah has no idea what he's talkin' about and that of course there is a Santa. Then I asked him if he means the Santa in the mall and he looked at me a bit funny. I had to s'plain to him that there is more than one Santa in the mall, too, because the one I saw when I was there with Gracie and her mom was really, really big. And the one I saw when I was there with Luke a bit later didn't have a big Santa belly and he was super skinny.
So, I figured out already that the Santas in the mall are not real.
And if those are not real, maybe the real Santa isn't real, either?
Jay-Jay had to think about this for a long time – I know it was a very long time because he said he will talk to me about it when we get home and he made me go into the car with poop head Noah and with Aid who was really nice to me and I don't even know why but I didn't ask because I kinda liked it. Jay-Jay didn't say a word when he drove and he kept making strange faces when I saw him in the review mirror.
At home, he told Noah to go to his room. Then he picked me up and took me to the living room. He sat down on the big comfy chair with me and then he gave me a cuddle and I could hear his heart beat really loudly so I gave him an extra big cuddle back.
I love cuddling with Jay-Jay. With all of my brothers. Cuddles are the best. Maybe not so much with No-No and Aid because if you try to give them a hug they push you away. Aid shoves harder than Noah because he is a bit stronger. But it hurts from both of them if you end up falling on your butt. Still, sometimes, I threaten to give them a hug just to annoy them. It is very easy to get on their nerves, Aid-y more so then No-No.
When Jay-Jay's heart was sounding normal again, he made me sit up on his knees and put his big hands on my shoulders and he looked at me with a very important 'spression on his stubbly face. Then he told me the big secret.
He said that kids only get to find out the big secret when they are big enough to understand it and that the day has come where I am finally a big girl and can know about the big secret, too. But before he told me, he made me pinky promise – we sealed it with our pinkies! – and he made me swear on all my stuffies' lives that I am not allowed to tell any other kid about it.
Then he told me the big secret: Santa is only a legend that the big kids and the adults tell to the little kids to make Christmas more magical for them.
He said that No-No was not supposed to tell me that but then I told him that it's okay, because since I am not little anymore, I have a right to know, too.
I mean, all of my family knows!
Jay-Jay still looked a bit sad when I said that. I think he doesn't like it when I say that I am not little anymore. Alex and he are a bit funny that way. They call me their baby and say that it hurts them when I grow bigger, which I think is silly. It's not their body that grows bigger, so how can it hurt them when it doesn't even hurt me?
Jack says to humor them if they get like that because they are 'motional old farts – I don't think he dares saying that to their face though! – and that they say that to him and No-No and Aid, too. I don't know what jokes have to do with that but I still believe him because Jack is really smart and he knows a lot of things. He will soon be a teenager, which is like really big, and once you are one, you belong in a very cool club, Jack says. At the moment, only Will and Luke are in this club in our family.
I believe Jack when he says this because Luke is very cool. He has a guitar and the music he plays on it is awesome. He has it with him all the time and whenever I go to his room – he shares with Sam and those two are always happy when I come in their room, not like Will or Aid – he is on his bed or on the window sill and he is playing something nice.
Will is a different kind of cool to Luke. Luke is nice-cool and Will is scary-cool. He doesn't smile very often and he always is angry with something. I guess he is a grumpy person. He can shout really loudly if he wants us to go away. Noah says that Will can shoot daggers from his eyes but that's silly, of course. No human being can do that.
But it does make me squirm and want to run away when Will glares at me. Sometimes, he glares at Aidan when he teases me or says mean things and then I see him squirm, too. That is kinda funny though. And Will calls me doll when he is in a good mood. I like that, because it sounds like a compliment when he says it.
Somebody knocks on my door and then opens it before I can tell them to go away. The chair that I put in front of the door falls over and then I hear a bang and some really bad curse words that I am not allowed to repeat. Jay-Jay said that Alex will be very upset to hear that Noah spilled the big secret to me – I don't agree, I think it was time that I found out – but I think Alex would be way more upset if he heard what Will just said.
I turn around real quick and make myself very big so that he can't see behind me.
"Don't come in! Go away!" I demand, crossing my arms over my chest to show him that I mean it.
"What's that fucking chair doing there?" Will asks, completely ignoring me.
"You said the f-word!" I gasp.
"Whatcha gonna do about it, huh?"
I guess he's in a grumpy mood again. Or always.
"You are not allowed in here," I tell him, ignoring his question, too.
I am not afraid of Will. I think.
"The chair?" He points at my desk chair lying in the middle of the room.
I guess he is not letting that go until I give him an answer. I huff because he is so annoying.
"It's to keep you guys from coming in all the time," I say angrily.
"And how does a chair standing in front of your door keep us from entering?" Will asks.
He raises one of his eyebrows, which is another cool thing I would like to learn how to do but whenever I try it in front of the mirror, all that I manage are funny faces.
"It was not standing in front of the door. It was under the door handle, you noodle head!"
Will looks at me kinda strange and then he picks up the chair and closes the door and puts the chair in front of the door. He turns it so that the back of the chair is against the door and then looks at it for a long time before shaking his head and then he looks at me again. His 'spression is even stranger now.
"You know that this only works if the back of your chair is actually taller than the distance between the floor and the door handle and that you're supposed to wedge it in there for it to work?"
Huh?
I have no clue what he's talking about. Aid told me that if I want to stop people from coming into my room, I need to lock my door. A key is the best option, but not for me, because I don't have one. Alex has it hidden somewhere because a long time ago, when I was little, I once locked myself in the bathroom and couldn't get back out and they had to break the lock and it must have cost a lot of money, so now I am not allowed to lock myself into a room by myself.
The twins also don't have a room key, and they blame me because of that accident in the bathroom then I was still a baby. But whatever. From Jack I know that the reason is that Alex doesn't want us to lock the adults out in case there is an emergency, or something.
Aid then told me about this trick that you can put your chair under the door handle and then nobody can get in. So I pushed me chair to the door to keep them out while I am working on my Christmas gifts for them. I don't want them to see what I am making. It worked, too, until Will showed up.
"What's your problem?" I decide to ask him the question he always asks us.
I don't know what else to say to him so maybe this will do the trick.
He laughs at me!
"Jesus Christ, you're something else, runt," he laughs and shakes his head again. "Did you seriously just put your chair in front of the door?"
I nod and feel a bit confused by his question.
That's what Aidan said I need to do.
"And you don't see the problem with it?"
He walks back to the chair and the door and then puts his one hand at the top of the chair's back and the other to the door handle. There is a gap about the size of two, maybe three chocolate bars between his two hands when he turns back around to show me.
Now I can't get the thought of chocolate out of my head.
Thank you, Will.
"Do you get it?"
I shake my head no, because I don't understand what he is trying to tell me.
Can't he use words, like a normal person?
"You actually need to be able to wedge the chair under the door handle for it to work," he tries to explain again.
When I just stare at him, he huffs really dramatically – like those 'saggerated characters in kiddie tv shows – and then walks out of the room. I look at the open door and don't know if I should get off the floor and close it again or if something else is going to happen.
A moment later, Will shows up again, this time carrying a chair. I watch as he comes into my room, closes the door and then puts the chair underneath the door handle in a very strange way. The chair is now not standing straight anymore.
"How are you s'possed to sit on there?" I ask curiously.
He gives me another one of his funny looks.
"Why would you need to sit on it?" Will asks.
"Because it's a chair and that's what it's for?"
Now he's the one asking silly questions!
"Okay, listen here, runt. I might regret this, because clearly, your baby brain is not yet developed up to the necessary level yet, but I know that you're not one of the dumbest people in this household, so I'll try anyway. If you use a chair to lock your door, maybe because you lost your key..."
"I don't have a key," I helpfully point out to him.
I thought he knows this but maybe he has forgotten.
"...or if you don't have a key," Will says, rolling his eyes at me, which I think is quite rude, "...you can use a chair to block a door and keep people out. But that only works if you use one that's big enough. Not your baby-sized chair from your baby-sized desk."
Now he is really starting to be rude!
"I'm not a baby!" I protest. "Take it back, or, or... I'm gonna take you off my Christmas gift list!"
Will's eyes grow wide at that.
Ha!
I knew this would put him in his place. Meanie.
"I never said you're a baby, you troll. It's your furniture that is baby-sized. You should tell Alex to get you new stuff. I mean, now that you know the big secret."
When he says that, I start to feel really proud. At first, I was a bit upset that all of the boys knew about the big secret and I was the only one left out. I am glad that Noah told me, even if he kept saying to Jay-Jay that it was an accident. Well, I for sure am happy about this accident. Because it means that there are no more secrets.
I am glad that at least the reindeers really exist – Jay-Jay confirmed that – because they are cute and otherwise I would have been sad, like my brothers. I still don't understand why they were sad though when they found out that No-No spilled the beans. I guess I could ask Jack, he would certainly know.
"I will tell him that I need a bigger chair so I can lock the door," I confirm.
This time, Will groans, like, really loudly.
"You don't tell him that, runt. You know what, forget it," he says with a big sigh.
Then I remember something.
"Why are you here? You are not allowed to be in here."
"Says who?"
"Me! It's my room, so I'm the boss," I remind him.
"Are you hiding something?" Will asks curiously.
Now he is the one asking dumb questions!
"I am making your Christmas gifts, silly, and they are a surprise!"
"So I'm still on your gift list?"
I cross my arms over my chest again and give him my best glare.
"Only if you are out of here in... in a gazillion part of a second!" I order him.
Will bursts out laughing while I keep my steely glare on him.
"I'll start counting...," I threaten him, remembering that this works really well when Ben does it with us. "Three, two, one-and-a-half..."
"I'm going, I'm going!"
Will puts his hands in the air like he is 'rendering and finally goes out of my bedroom.
"I only came to get you for dinner, by the way. You have one minute!" Will calls from the hallway. "59 seconds, 58 seconds..."
His voice sounds further and further away as he walks downstairs.
I quickly shove all my gift making stuff under my bed and pull the bed cover down so that you can't see that there is anything hidden under the bed.
It is really hard coming up with 11 gifts. That's a lot of gifts to make. But I like crafting things, so it's okay. I also like seeing the happy faces of my brothers when I give them my surprises. Sometimes, Aid makes a mean comment, but Sammy says it's because he's jealous that I came up with an idea that he didn't have.
I wonder how Santa does it with all the squidillions of gifts for all the people all over the world.
Oh no, Santa isn't real!
But there is still a lot of gifts to deliver. Like, for 'sample, I still need to ask Alex or Jay-Jay how we can get my gift to Jo-Jo, who lives in a really hot desert at the moment. Which is very, very far away. So far away that sometimes he can't even use a phone. And I also can't send him chocolates because they will melt.
Jay-Jay told me that the reindeers are really real when I asked how all the gifts will get to the people if there is no Santa. And also, how it is possible that the carrots and cookies disappear when we put them out by the backdoor on Christmas Eve.
I don't even know if they have reindeer that go all the way to the desert though without getting lost.
I will have to find a way to get one that will deliver my gift to Jo-Jo at the other end of the world. I am sure Alex can help with that if I ask him. He can find a solution for every problem.
I'll make sure that Jo-Jo has a nice Christmas in the far-away desert, too.
A/N - All right, this was likely topping the sugary-sweet-super-adorable-scale, LOL. From now on, we'll have more mature POVs again (Noah's is the only one still missing from the younger kids). I hope you liked it. For me, it's certainly great fun to write and such a difference from the drama in the main story.