Hey everyone, author here again! Another big time skip, because I really, really need to move this story along! Sorry about that, I hope the transition isn't too bad. But my character development is getting ahead of my timeline, and I need to speed the timeline up.
(}--|Christmas Morning|--{)
NORA
It had been a long time since Nora was excited for a Christmas celebration. Most of the time, she'd spent it at the orphanage. But, sometimes, she was in a foster home around that time. Sometimes, she even got a present that she liked. But most of the time, people didn't know her well enough to buy her anything that she would actually enjoy.
Nora had already made brownies again for Rosie, and she had taken them over the day before. Rosie had insisted that Nora couldn't come over on Christmas or New Year's, since she needed to spend that time with Mouse and the other lifeguards. Nora didn't protest all too much, since she really was looking forward to at least spending the day with Mouse. That was, at least, until she learned that he was working.
It was eight o'clock when Nora finally decided to pull herself out of her bed. She slid out from underneath the covers and trotted to her closet, pulling on a pair of pink jean shorts and a pea green tank top. She glanced at her swimsuits, and decided that she would go to the beach later.
But first, presents.
Nora had chosen not to buy anything until last minute because she wasn't sure how she could sneak anything into the house. She wanted to get something for Mouse, Jesse, Deano, Harrison and Maxi, Jules, and Harries.
Not that she'd really bonded with Harries, but he was coming over later for the Christmas celebration and Nora didn't want to leave him out.
Nora walked out of her bathroom, tying her hair into a ponytail, and entered the kitchen. She was looking down at the floor in an attempt to actually get her hair to cooperate.
"Hey there!"
Nora screamed.
"Reidy!" She gasped, holding her hand to her chest in an attempt to calm her racing heart, "Didn't...didn't see you there."
Reidy chuckled, "Sorry, Kiddo. Mouse didn't want you to be hanging out here alone on your first Christmas in Bondi, so I offered to come over. That alright?"
"It's great," Nora was still actually trying to catch her breath. She figured she'd lost at least a year off of her life from that one.
Reidy laughed at her again and then said, "What are we doing today?"
Nora held up her purse from the end table, "Well, I've got to Christmas shop and then I thought I would go down to the beach?"
"Sounds good, when do we leave?"
Nora pulled a breakfast bar out of the cabinet and slipped her trusty KEENS on. "Now," She told him.
Reidy hopped off of his stool and hurried after her.
The two left the inhabited part of Bondi and walked along a row of shops. Nora was examining the things in the windows, trying to figure out where would be a good place to go to pick up her items. The first thing she came across was a joke shop, and she had an instant idea of what kind of thing to get Harries.
"Harries likes gag gifts, doesn't he?" Nora asked Reidy.
Reidy got a strange look on his face, "Sure does."
"Then this is stop one, I guess," Nora turned and walked into the shop, her eyes widening as she tried to take in all of the colorful decor. She was glad that she wasn't epileptic, because the explosion of rainbows and shiny things were enough to nearly induce a seizure in a normal person.
"Whoa," Reidy said from behind Nora.
Nora nodded her agreement and began to look around.
It didn't take her long to find the section she wanted; surfing. There was even a little section from Bondi Beach, and it had bobble heads of each of the most infamous lifeguards. Harries, of course, was one of them.
"This is the thing," Nora pulled out a bobble head of Harries saluting and held it up.
"He'll appreciate that," Reidy agreed.
Nora bought the bobble head, as well as a gift bag so violently pink that it should have been illegal.
The shop next to the joke shop was a surf shop. Reidy suggested going inside and they found some surfboard chalk and a really cool hat for Mouse. She also found a collapsible board stand for inside houses, decorated with flowers and stuff, that she got for Jules.
"What do Maxi, Deano, Jesse, and Harrison all like?" Nora asked as Reidy and her left the shop.
"Well, surfing. Maxi likes cartoons, Deano likes ice baths, Jesse likes food, and Harrison's not all that picky."
Nora suddenly remembered that Talia said her mom was a cartoonist. She pulled out her phone and said, "Talia's mom is a cartoonist, let me text her."
Reidy and her stopped and waited as Nora typed rapidly on the old brick of a device that she was embarrassed to call her own.
NORA: Hey Talia! How's it going? You're mom's a cartoonist, right?"
TALIA: Hi! Good. And yea, she is.
NORA: Can she do a drawing of Maxi for me? I want to give it to him for Christmas.
TALIA: Sure, I'll ask her. Brb.
Nora looked up at Reidy, "She's asking her mom," Nora said.
Reidy nodded, and then replied, "What else do you want to get?"
"Uh, well, lets get some herbs for Jesse so that he can make his own seasonings. He likes to grill, right?"
"That's a good idea!" Reidy seemed surprised that Nora had come up with it.
Nora grinned, "And then , maybe a- oh, let's get that for Harrison!" She pointed at a window in the shop across the street, where a stuffed kiwi bird was perched atop a stuffed tree branch.
Reidy burst out laughing and then turned and led the way across the street without another word, Nora right on his tail.
The two entered the shop and Nora walked over to the window, where she found several boxes of the stuffed kiwi birds and their separate little branch boxes all piled up. Nora laughed when she read that each box contained a 'flock' of kiwis. She walked to the front.
"How many stuffed animals are in the kiwi box?" She asked the manager.
"There are two in the ones with the green labels, six in the ones with the blue labels, and the ones with the black labels have fifteen," She replied in a nasally voice.
"Kay, thanks!" Nora turned and trotted back to the kiwi boxes. Now that she was looking, she noticed the tags were different on the boxes, but she could only find the green and blue labelled ones.
Looking one last time, Nora peeked farther back into the shelf, and found exactly what she was looking for. A slightly larger box with a shiny black sticker on it. A price tag labeled the box as twenty five dollars, which was a good price for fifteen stuffed animals. Nora wondered how they could even all fit into the box if they were supposed to be as large as the picture said they were.
Nevertheless, she grabbed the kiwi box and a branch box, and then walked to the front of the store, setting them on the counter. The counter lady scanned them, and then said, "Thirty five dollars."
Nora forked over the cash. Thankfully, she still had quite a bit of the original five hundred dollars left, and she didn't need to use the debit card left in her name.
Holding the boxes, Nora walked out of the store. Reidy was standing outside, reading something on the window of the store. He'd left a moment earlier than Nora.
"Wow," Reidy said as she tucked the boxes under her arm.
"I know, right? Now all we have left is-" Nora was cut off by her phone dinging.
TALIA: Mom's gonna do it. She says that it should be done by three in the afternoon, that good?
NORA: Sure thing, thanks so much! See you at three!
TALIA: See you at three!
Nora smiled at the texts and then said, "We can pick the drawing up at three. So all we have left are Jesse's herbs and a really fancy bag of ice."
--
A half an hour, three pots, and a ridiculously expensive bag of ice later, Nora and Reidy walked back into Mouse's apartment. Nora stashed the ice into the freezer immediately, not wanting to risk it melting. "That ice had better be magical," She grumbled as she closed the freezer door.
Reidy chuckled at her and set the other items on the counter. Nora had also bought a roll of wrapping paper because she had no idea where Mouse's was.
Reidy and Nora got to work wrapping all of the presents except for Jesse's which they put in a nice pot and added a little mini surfboard decoration too, and a red bow.
They put the bobble head for Harries in his little gift bag, and wrapped Harrison's stuffed animals. Mouse's hat got wrapped, but they put the surfboard chalk in a different bag. Jules's present was only half wrapped because it was huge. It was wrapped just enough to make sure she wouldn't know what it was. Nora added several bows to make up for the lack of paper over it.
The only thing left was Maxi's cartoon, but Nora couldn't even pick it up yet, so she and Reidy decided to go swimming instead. Nora raced to her room and changed into one of her swimsuits. She decided to wear the one piece she'd bought on the first day but never worn. It was white with little flowers all over it. She slid her shorts back on and put on a thin Lion King top, before trotting out of her room to see Reidy filling his water bottle at the fridge.
"Ready to go?" He asked.
Nora nodded, "Yep!"
She and Reidy left through the now repaired patio door. Nora grimaced as she remembered the pain of pulling the glass shards out of her body. Harrison had nearly had to hold her down so Mouse and Maxi could remove them.
Reidy nudged Nora playfully, jerking her out of her thoughts, and she pushed him back with a grin. But, unlike her, he was hardly shaken by the push.
"Race you!" Reidy yelled, taking off across the beach.
"You're on!" Nora pelted after him, feeling her small feet slip slightly in the sand. She lifted herself onto her toes, leaned forward, and let herself fly. There was a good reason she was a short distance runner.
Nora skidded in front of Reidy as he slowed down finally, halfway down the beach. He dropped his towel on the ground next to hers and then took off toward the water, Nora right behind him.
The two plunged into the waves, laughing and splashing each other. Nora was amazed at how mature Reidy could be at one moment, and then how much he could act like a small boy in the next.
"Got you!" Reidy sprayed a splash of water in Nora's face.
Nora watched as he dove into a wave, swimming away from her quickly. She grinned and raced after him.