Rewritten: 05/02/17
z o e ♡
Christmas has always been my favorite holiday. The treats, presents which is a bonus, the food, decorations, everything about it excited me. Around a couple years ago, my grandma had passed away around Thanksgiving time and suddenly, I didn't find a reason to properly enjoy holidays as much as I had used to. It just feels weird that she's not here to celebrate it with us.
On the topic of Christmas, it is right around the corner, literally. It's in four days and I still have yet to buy presents for almost everyone. I already brought Jacob's, dad's, and John's present. I also bought something for Julie and Yasmin. I still needed to buy Naomi and my mom something. They were the hardest to shop for. I also planned on getting the guys, Mason, Derek, Sean, Carson, and Joe something but I have no clue what to get.
I decided today I would go shopping with Naomi seeing as she still hasn't finished her shopping so this is great. Obviously, I can't get her gift today so sadly I have to make another trip.
---
We look at each other before bursting out laughing. "You look ridiculous!" I exclaimed, laughing.
So instead of being productive and shopping for presents, we thought Party City's more fun and we decided to try on some ridiculously big, very ugly, hats and a fluffy feather scarf around our necks.
Naomi snorts, laughing, "Ew, I just snorted!" She snickers, "We look horrible!" She laughs. I grin, taking off my hat.
"We have no life," I said.
Naomi nods her head, "I know, we are very sad people." She hummed, "We could've spent that last half hour shopping for Christmas presents but... hmm, here we are."
I snickered, "I think we should actually go shop now."
She sighed, "Unfortunately. Back to the real world, eh?"
Chuckling, I put the ridiculous looking hats in the racks and follow Naomi out the store. For a good 10 minutes, we aimlessly walk around the mall, looking at the little decorations and stands.
"Let's go in here, Topshop should have something for at least someone," I said. "I haven't shopped for my mom yet."
"Same, mom's are so hard to shop for." Naomi groaned, "I looked online, I came to the store a few days ago and couldn't find anything."
"I think I'm going to get a purse and like maybe sunglasses or something." I murmured, my eyes fixated on the rack of purses.
"You can never have too many purses." said Naomi.
After spending a good hour searching for gifts, we treated ourselves to ice cream and then headed our way home.
"Wanna come over?" I asked her, tapping away on my phone letting my mom know I was coming home.
Naomi shrugged, "Sure, I've got nothing else to do."
I chuckled and nodded my head.
The familiar sound of my phone rang as I swiped answer.
"Do you like scavenger hunts?" Sean immediately asked, not bothering with a proper greeting.
"Hey, Sean. I'm doing fantastic, thanks for asking, how're you?"
Sean groaned, "I'm great, now answer my question."
"Rude, rude." I tsked. "Why?" I asked avoiding the question.
"It's rude to not answer someone's question," Sean stated.
I pulled a face, "Yeah, I like them, why?" I answered.
"Great, are you home?"
"Nope," I say.
Sean paused, "When will you be home?"
"In like three seconds," I answered.
Sean sighed, "You're really annoying you know that?"
I grinned, "I've been told."
"I'll be over...hey!" Sean gasped.
"Hey, Zoe!" I heard Carson's familiar voice on the other end.
I raised an eyebrow, "Hey."
"Is Naomi there?"
I hummed, "Yeah, why?"
"Cool, we'll pick you guys up from your place in like 30 minutes, thanks, see you soon." With that, he hung up.
I turned to Naomi, "So, I think we're going scavenger hunting with the guys." I told her.
She paused, "Wait, what?" I shrugged. "Hm, okay, sounds good, I guess."
Within 2 minutes, Naomi and I made our way inside my humble abode and the smell of chocolate chip cookies hit my nose.
"Dear Mother, I'm home!"
Mom appeared in the living room, "I made cookies. Jacob's home so unless you want cookies, I'd get some now."
"Zoe, have I told you how much I love your mother? Mrs. Vann, I love you."
Mom grinned a bright smile, her forehead slightly crinkling, "Oh Naomi, haven't I told you to address me as Katie? I don't want to feel like I'm back at work, yikes."
Naomi grinned, "Sorry!"
I chuckled, walking to the kitchen. I grabbed a cookie, taking a bite of the soft, chocolatey goodness. I hummed in appreciation. "Mom, by the way, we're going scavenger hunting with a few friends." I brought it up.
"Ooh, that sounds fun!" She grinned, "Who might these friends be?" Mom asked us curiously.
"Well, um, Sean, Carson, and Mason maybe Derek and Joe.." I answered.
She quirked an eyebrow, "All guys?" I meekly nodded.
My mom never had a problem with me hanging out with guys. She knew I wouldn't do anything stupid. Ever since I was a little kid, I never hung out with many girls. I never got along with them. Whenever we'd be at the park, I'd always hang out with the guys. Somehow my best friend ended up being a girl which I'm very lucky. It's not like guys like talking about periods and all that shìt.
"Well, you two better be safe. I pray that there's no call from the police. I'd like to not repeat what happened years ago."
I grimaced, my mind reeling back to only three years ago.
---
It was the evening and Derek and I were aimlessly walking around, making small talk.
"Wanna get on that building and throw water balloons at people walking by?" He whispered.
I cringed, "I don't know, that's really mean..."
"Come on! It'll be fun! Please?"
"Derek..."
"Please!"
Somehow I agreed and here we are throwing water balloons off of an abandoned building. Some balloons hit people, others hit the ground.
The sound the two of us did not want to hear was heard.
Wide-eyed, I looked at Derek in panic, "Derek! What the hell?!"
"Fück! Let's go!" He grabbed my hand and pulled me to the side and the two of us made a run for it.
"Hold it right there!"
---
"I promise we won't do anything stupid. That was a one-time thing and it'll never happen." I promised her.
"Let's hope." She mutters. "Wait, did you say Derek? He's back?" Mom asked me.
I nodded my head, "I told you, didn't I?" I racked my brain to remember if I told her.
She scoffed, "No!"
"Oh... I'm sorry. He came a few weeks ago. He's here for a while."
My mom nodded her head, "I'll have to ring up Carol and invite her for dinner."
"Alright mom, we gotta go," I tell her after reading the text from Sean.
"I'll text you when I come back." I say, putting my phone in my pocket.
"Be safe you two! Please please don't do anything stupid."
"We're only going hunting."
Mom rolled her eyes, "And you told me you two were going to a painting class." She replied sarcastically.
I smiled sheepishly, "Oops?"
"Go before I change my mind."
"Love you!"
Within three minutes, Naomi and I were in Mason's car and on our way to wherever they were taking us.
"Joe's meeting us there because he lives close by and Derek said he had some business to take care of aka video games," Mason said.
I shared a look with Naomi, a sly grin appearing on the both of our faces. Whenever Derek had the word "business" and "video games" together meant that he was with a girl. Plus the fact that he sucks at video games is another dead giveaway. He's done that many times.
"Does my hair look fluffy enough?" Carson asked us, his eyebrows furrowed in confusion.
I grinned, "Mason's hair is very fluffy."
Naomi hummed in agreement, "Right? It's a such a pretty blonde too and it's so nice to look at!"
Carson frowns, "Hey! I asked about my hair! Not Mason's hair!"
"Now I'm kinda jealous," Sean mutters.
I snickered but didn't reply.
"So... um, why are we going scavenger hunting?"
"We're also going to drink eggnogs and we're gonna go to some holiday lights thing. I dunno, it sounded interesting." Carson said.
"Ooh, I like eggnogs," I commented.
Sean coughed, "Hot chocolates better... but we all have our own opinions."
"Um, no. Actually, candy cane cocoa is so much better." Naomi butted in.
I gasped, "Ew! Who are you?!" I exclaimed, "I can't believe we're friends!"
"I swear, I think every day, every single day, we always get in a dumb argument and it's always about something stupid," Mason comments, shaking his head.
I thought about it, "Yeah.. you're right about that."
"Of course I'm right," He scoffed, "when am I ever wrong?"
---
I bumped shoulders with Sean.
"Excited?"
I smile, "I haven't been on a scavenger hunt since like forever. I'm pretty damn excited."
I looked around the area, taking in the giggling children running around, their mothers and fathers worriedly running after them.
"Uh..." I mutter, confused.
"No, this isn't where we're supposed to be. There's apparently one for teenagers, believe it or not." Sean answered what I was thinking.
"Good, then the adults here would think we're fücking crazy for doing this."
"Language!" Some lady yelled.
I sheepishly smiled, muttering an apology as Sean snickered next to me.
"Be prepared to have the best day ever."
"Hm, that's debatable, but we'll see."
Sean grabbed my hand and pulled me to the front of a door that was labeled Winter Scavenger Hunt and opened the door, dragging me inside. Inside were a bunch of people around our age all talking amongst themselves.
Our friends were nowhere to be seen. Carson and Naomi wandered off and Joe and Mason went to the bathroom. They've been gone for quite some time.
The instructor explained all the instructions then proceeded to hand us a paper with all the things we had to find.
"Whoever finds the most wins..."
I grin, "Wins what?"
"If I win, you have to make me a nice dinner." Sean answers.
"If I win, you're buying me a supply of chocolate."
We shook our hands.
"There are twenty things on the list, you take this half and I'll take this half. In ten minutes, we have to find our half of the ten and the ones we both haven't found, we'll look for it so we don't lose the actual hunt. Okay? Okay." Sean explained to me in one breath.
I blinked repeatedly before nodding my head. "Okay."
"Let's shake hands. Deal?" He said, stretching his hand towards me."
"Deal." We shook hands, "Be prepared to lose, loser."
The instructor clapped his hands, gathering the attention of everyone inside the room. "1, 2, 3, and it begins! You all have twenty minutes to find everything on the list!"
---
Unfortunately, I lost.
Sean was gloating all the way home. He wouldn't let me live this down.
"I can't believe you only found three things on your list!" Sean snickered.
I scowled, "I hate you so much."
He grinned, showing his pearly whites, "Friday, 6 o'clock, dinner." He told me, ending this conversation.
"I hope you choke on your spit," I tell him.
He laughed, "Damn, I didn't know you hated losing."
"Sean... I don't think anyone likes losing."
"Hmm, yeah you're right... loser."
♡♡
Author's Note: next chapter should be interesting... (;
also, do you guys like long chapters or short chapters?
after a few more chapters (2-3?) the story should get a lot more interestingggg!! i'm excited.
ps this chapter took forever to write. i don't even know why. i had it all planned but yeah...
xoxo - Mayyy