Chapter 18: A Girl's Got To Do What A Girl's Got To Do
The things I need most on the holidays are:
1) A cute Christmas & New Years outfit.
2) Clothes that are well suited for the winter weather.
3) A new car—haha just kidding, but a new car would be super cool.
4) Hot chocolate, lots and lots of hot chocolate, marshmallows, and any a bunch of candy.
5) Christmas Decorations. Not just Christmas Decorations, but Smurftastic Christmas Decorations.
Of course I would have also loved to spend the time with my whole family, but it didn't happen during Thanksgiving, and it didn't seem like it was going to happen anytime soon. Christmas was coming up in a few days, and it seemed that Alex and I would spend it at the Matthews residence. It wasn't like we didn't love being at their house, but being at home in Jasper, with the whole town, was one of the best feelings in the world.
Thanksgiving was spent at the Matthews house too, because our parents were stuck on a business trip and preferred to not have Alex and I come home to an empty house. The reason why we couldn't come home for Christmas was because of the snow. There was a massive snowstorm that had been going on for the last few days canceling all flights to and from Boston.
Just in case, I had our family's jet ready to go, and our and pilot, Harry, promise to call me if the storm had stopped, so we could fly straight to Boston as soon as possible. I hadn't told anybody but Tristan the arrangement because I didn't want to get anybody's hopes up in case there wasn't a miracle. But as badly as I wanted to spend Christmas in the snow just like every year, it would be nice to spend the holidays somewhere different for once.
I was trying to be extremely optimistic, especially for Alex. Alex didn't take the news too well, probably taking it worse than me. He wanted to catch up with all of our old friends and practically cursed out to the sky after he got off the phone with our parents.
Since we couldn't get into the Christmas spirit at home, I dragged Alex out to the nearest grocery store so we could buy ingredients to make cookies, brownies, pies, and a bunch of other treats to bring to the Matthews residence. I grabbed a cart and had him push it while we walked into the baking aisle to get the basic essentials. Grabbing a huge sack of flour, I waddled with it until I reached the cart and threw it inside. Alex went to grab a bunch of chocolate chips and marshmallows, while I went to get a big bag of sugar.
I had no clue why I was getting all the heavy stuff while Alex got all the light stuff. In a way it wasn't fair, but I was the one who had dragged him out here in the first place.
When we were at the register, I was happily piling on our items to the revolving rubber thing. Alex got out his wallet and grumbled about having to pay. I glared at him when the cashier heard his mumbling and it certainly shut him up.
The cashier looked at the two of us. "What a happy couple you guys are!" she said.
"She's my sister," Alex said harshly.
I glared at him again, which made him throw his hands up in the air and pout. "I am so sorry for him," I told the cashier while handing her out cash.
She smiled weakly in response and handed back our change. "Have a nice day," she said.
"You too," I replied smiling huge. "Happy Holidays!"
After the great grocery adventure, I hopped in the car and waited for Alex as he loaded our trunk with the items. I started the car and turned on the radio, listening to the classic Christmas jingles playing. The intro to a certain song began playing, and I called out to Alex telling him to hurry up and get his butt inside the car.
"I don't want a lot for Christmas. There is just one thing I need..."
Alex jumped into the car, and despite his foul mood was already singing along. This song was one that our mom always sang during Christmas. It was always normal to break out into complete theatrics once this song came on; one of those times being now. We jammed to the song in his car all the way back to the my dorm building, displaying some killer—as in horrible or amazing, depending on whichever way you heard it—vocals until we ended with the iconic line, "All I want for Christmas is... youuuuuuuu."
We were laughing as we took the bags out of the car, and that's when my phone rang. I checked to see who the caller was, and it was our pilot, Harry. I answered it quickly. "Hello?"
"Hey, Azalia! Good news! The snowstorm finally stopped. Hurry out to the airport, and we'll be off to Boston right away!" Harry exclaimed.
"No way! No way!" I screamed.
Alex, startled by my screaming, asked, "Why the heck are you screaming?"
Ignoring him, I screamed out to Harry again, "Oh my god! This is great! We'll be there in 30!" I stuffed the bags in my hand back into the trunk and had Alex do the same. I ushered him back into the car and hopped back in too. "Drive to the airport!"
He looked at me like I was crazy. "Don't give me orders."
"Don't order me to not give you orders," I responded.
"Don't order me to not order you to not give you orders."
I pursed my lips. "Just drive to the airport"
"Just tell me why you want to go to the airport," Alex said, still not starting to drive. "That's all you have to do. Don't make this hard for yourself, Azalia."
"Just drive to the airport!" I repeated again.
"But why?" Alex proceeded to go into a rant about how I never told him anything, which was completely far from the truth and started saying stuff about how he's the oldest and how he is in charge, which is again, far from the truth.
I completely disregarded whatever he was saying and called Tristan. After the phone took rang about a million times, Tristan finally answered. I let out a breath of relief as he said, "Hey, Z. What's happening?"
"A Christmas miracle."
Tristan, being the only other one who had known the arrangement had picked out, "A Christmas miracle" as the code name. "No way! The storm let out?" Tristan asked. He whooped in excitement in the background. "You know, I bought these really cool gloves because I had a really good feeling that we would be able to go home. They have this built in heater that is—"
"So irrelevant to what is going on right now." I rolled my eyes. "Just get Noah and hurry up to the airport. Since the storm has let out, we're leaving ASAP."
I heard Tristan move hurriedly through his house. "I'm going to get him and tell my mom that we're leaving. We'll be there right away." Along with Tristan being in on the plan, he had informed Aunt Nicole what was going on so she knew why her sons suddenly disappeared. She planned a getaway for her and Uncle Justin somewhere in the world if we were to spend Christmas in Jasper, and we had things planned out so we were able to drop whatever we were doing and head straight to the airport so we could take off immediately.
"Okay, see you there. We're going to be at the same place the jet always takes off." I waited for confirmation from him before hanging up. "Got it?"
Tristan scoffed. "Got it? Of course I've got it." He hung up with no time for me to say anything else.
I glanced at Alex and saw the pieces of the puzzle come together. "Christmas miracle, airport, storm let out... We're going home?" he asked excitedly; hope building up in his eyes.
"No, we're going to the Bahamas," I said. Alex glared at me and I let out a little laugh. "Harry called me and said the storm died down, so we have a one way flight to Boston—"
"Then a short 30 minute drive to Jasper!" Alex finished off for me.
All I did was grin as Alex finally began to drive and he pushed the speed limit as fast as he possibly could without the police pulling him over until we arrived at SFO, where we sadly had to part ways with Alex's beautiful car. With Alex's demand, we parked his car in a preferred area where we had to pay to keep his car in extra safekeeping. It wouldn't have surprised me if Tristan did the same when he arrived here too.
I got out of his car and rushed away from what I knew was going to be an embarrassing scene. I was right to head away quickly because Alex was hugging his car, not wanting to let it go. He seemed to be sobbing and was apologizing to his car right in front of both the attendants who were shooting him confused looks. "It's okay, Rachel," he told his car, petting the hood, "We'll be back in a couple of weeks. You'll survive."
I was paying one of the attendants when he asked the other, "Is that guy crazy?" It didn't surprise me that the attendant thought Alex was crazy because Alex draped all over the hood of his car was a weird sight.
While that attendant punched in the price, the other one responded, "I think he is. Maybe he thinks the car is his wife or something." They shared a laugh, while I struggled not to laugh along with them.
After I grabbed my receipt, I went straight to Alex and grabbed his arm. I dragged him away from the parking lots while waving goodbye to the attendants. "God, you're crazy," I told him once we were far, far away from where his car was parked and right in front of the entrance to the private lots. "Okay, so the luggage is already there, and—Oh my smurf, Alex. Are you really still upset over your car?"
He sniffled. Alex actually sniffled.
"You're joking right? Please tell me you're joking," I begged. Over the years I have dealt with all of my twin's ridiculous behaviors, but this was taking it to a new low. "We're literally about to go home for Christmas, the most wonderful time of the year, and you are crying over your car!"
I was seconds away from tugging my hair out when Noah arrived, dragging behind a sullen looking Tristan. Alex and Tristan went to stand next to each other and discussed about the sorrows of losing their car. "Noah, I can't deal with this right now." I was seconds away to pulling out my hair, seconds away. "Drag them to the jet for me before I leave them both here for Christmas. I don't have time for this. I still have to check in with customs."
"Whoa, little smurf. Calm down." He kissed my cheek then sneakily whispered in my ear, "It's all a joke. They just wanted to get you mad enough that you would send them in the jet before you so they could get the good seats. Tristan was talking all about it in the car. I wonder what makes them so special."
Letting out a sigh of relief because the two weren't mentally deranged, I told Noah, "Just take those two and go to the jet. I really could care less at this point what seats are given to whom. I just want to go home."
Noah brought me into a hug and squeezed me tightly. "You'll be home soon enough. I'll make sure they aren't any trouble. Just holler if you need anything." He planted a chaste kiss on my lips. "And we'll be having a conversation later about keeping this trip from me. I'm not exactly happy about Tristan barging into my room and dragging me out of the house saying that there was a gang coming out for us and we needed to hightail it to the airport. I was scared for my life!" He then went to the jet with Tristan and Alex.
"I never told him to tell you that!" I yelled after him.
"I would've known that he was joking if you just told me about this," he yelled back.
Well Noah's revenge must've been his promise of keeping everything in control going completely down the drain because when I came inside a couple of minutes later, the contents of the mini refrigerator were scattered throughout the floor. The three boys were standing right in the middle of the mess with the mini fridge itself being held in all of their arms.
I sighed and shook my head. Don't ask how it happened. I never even bothered to either.
•••
Luckily, and I mean this when I say luckily, the boys didn't cause any other trouble for the rest of the flight, at least none that I know of. They did disappear for about ten minutes, but I decided to put my earphones in and relax instead of investigating. It might have been a huge mistake on my part even though it had brought me temporary peace, but the flight did go really well, which was suspicious also.
I needed to stop being always suspicious, but once you're a ninja, suspicion is part of your life style.
Anyway, we got out of the airport safe and sound, and the short drive home was faster than usual. I was anxious to finally breathe in the Jasper air and run around the town in the snow. We arrived at nighttime, and the winter snow with all the Christmas lights hung around the trees made the town look beautiful. We were driving past the town square, which was heavily lit and had a towering 25-foot Christmas tree covered in snow, lights, and ornaments just like every other year.
Jasper had a tradition every Christmas that everyone in the town participated in. Exactly a week before Christmas, everyone would gather in the town square and bring things to decorate the huge tree. There were always three huge ladders that mainly adults got to climb so the whole tree would have spirit. The star at the top of the tree was always put on before they put the tree up, so nobody would have to go through the trouble of climbing that whole tree just to lay a star.
This year was the first year Alex and I didn't participate in it.
Alex was driving, and I was up in the seat next to him. I gently shook his arm and pointed to the tree. "The tree," I whispered to him, tears pooling up in my eyes.
"I know," he said sadly. "I know." We would've made it home in time to decorate the tree. He knew that. I knew that. If that snowstorm just didn't happen, this holiday would have been completely different.
Alex continued to drive to our house, and when we arrived, I almost had a heart attack. I knew our mother didn't have us home to help her, but the outside of our home was normal. During the holidays, normal is not good. There were no lights, no decorations, no nothing! I get that her job is for interior designing, but that doesn't mean that she couldn't branch out to exterior designing for Christmas.
I scrambled my way out of the car and stood in our driveway, staring at our house in horror. "Oh my narts. This is awful." I led the way to our front door and took out my key for the house. "Guys, I am going to faint."
Unlocking the door and opening it, I sighed in relief when I saw that inside the house was the exact opposite from outside. I ran into the kitchen, where I knew my mom was going to be, and started shouting, "Mom! We need to decorate outside! We are not in a place of dullness. We are in a place of amazingness! The outside of this house has no amazingness at all! I'm going to need ladders, staple guns, and all of our Christmas lights. We have to get started now!"
I was still rambling on about everything we needed when Alex walked in heading straight for the fridge. "Hi, Mom," he said. He took some cookies out of the fridge and started munching on it.
Tristan and Noah were right behind him. "Hi, Auntie Michelle." They took a cookie off the plate and devoured it also.
In the meantime, I was writing down lists and barking orders at the boys of what needed to be done. I handed a couple of post-its to Alex and Tristan and told Noah that he was with me. "Mom," I told her, "I need you to get the lights out of the garage and give them to Alex and Tristan, okay?" She wasn't giving me a response so I looked up at her to ask again, but she looked confused. "Mom, are you okay?"
She looked around the room at all of us. "I thought you guys weren't coming home for the holidays!"
Alex said, "We weren't, but the storm stopped and we rushed over here."
She jumped out of her seat and brought us all into a group hug. "Why didn't you guys tell me ahead of time? I haven't started cooking anything yet!" She then focused her attention on Noah and Tristan. "I haven't seen you two in forever. Look how grown up you are." Mom was pinching their cheeks, and Alex and I were snickering at their uncomfortable faces. "Okay, so Lia, everything you're looking for is next to the Christmas tree in boxes. Your father and I were going to get started hanging up lights in a couple of hours, but since you're offering, you guys can do it."
"Got it, Mom." I hugged her and kissed her cheek and handed her the supplies we got from grocery shopping over five hours back. Then I motioned for Alex, Tristan, and Noah to follow me. "Okay guys, my goal is to have everything decorated in less than two hours so we could go inside and have dinner on time. Am I clear?" I said in a drill sergeant voice.
"Crystal," they all said back.
I motioned for them to get on with it, and they hurried to do their work. I ushered Noah outside so we could get started on the outdoor light structures. Sure, I was on a mission to complete decorating, but I admit, we did get sidetracked at times while waiting for Alex and Tristan to untangle the lights. It was snowing, and we were having fun playing with the moving snowmen and reindeer. We got to the point where we were making snow angels in the snow, and one thing led to another and we were making out in the snow.
It was pretty romantic kissing in the snow until Alex walked out with the lights and practically screamed at Noah to "get the hell off of me or else his face would be buried in the snow until he got frostbite and his nose fell off." Noah looked pretty pale after that, which could've just been from the snow, but he still winked at me from time to time while putting up lights and stapling them to the walls.
I also took it upon myself to steal quick kisses from him behind Alex's back and still get the job done way faster than I anticipated. A girl's got to do what a girl's got to do, am I right?
Once we were officially finished, I had Mom come outside to see our work and take a picture of Alex, Noah, Tristan and I as a memory of the first holiday we spent together. I looked at the photo on our camera and grinned because I knew that this was going to be one of the best Christmases ever.
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Sorry for the super late update guys! The next one will come faster than this one for sure!
Just to let you all know, if you guys were willing to make banners or covers for the story, just send them to me through PM, and I'll dedicate a chapter to you!
Love you all!
♥royalbluerose