The days went by, the christmas holidays already started and I already missed school.
Only the thought of being trapped in this house for too long made me feel anxious.
But the last Friday of school was amazing, after my best friends explained to me on Monday, that they will bring their christmas presents to school I was thrilled.
Still I was sad, that I couldn't meet them on Christmas or on Sylvester, but the fact that we exchanged presents made my holidays better.
And we pinky promised to wait till Christmas and open them via video call together.
Jonathan let me buy presents for my friends through the internet as well, so they arrived punctual.
I packed them in pretty paper and I also managed to buy gifts for my brothers.
Jonathan promised not to look in the shopping cart and I believed him.
If he only acts suprised on Christmas eve, I will take away his gift and only give it back to him when he apologizes.
And maybe hugs me.
I thought a lot in what to buy them and even bought a present for their grandfather that will be here on Christmas.
He maybe wasn't the best person on earth, but he was part of this family so it felt right to give him something.
The day after I exchanged the presents with Megan and Anna it was Saturday.
Being able to sleep long enough made my body relaxed. I didn't even had scary thoughts before going to bed.
When I woke up alone in my dull room. It was awfully quiet.
Something was definitely off, I studied around in my room.
The boys should be awake by now, maybe not the twins and Caleb, but the tie older ones were morning people.
Well, when they didn't have work. When I think about it maybe no one of us is a morning person.
First I couldn't see and think about what was wrong, but when I examined my table again I noticed it.
My presents were gone.
The presents that I carefully placed on the table, so I would see them everyday till Christmas.
The presents that made my ears tear up of joy and that I cherished with all my heart.
Anna's beautiful packed green gift was gone, as well as Megan's yellow one, not even the cute pink ribbon was anywhere to be seen.
Somebody stole my presents.
It took a few minutes for my brain to comprehend what I was thinking, but it was too late.
Like a lunatic I dashed out of my room, sprinting down the stairs.
I panicked. I definitely panicked.
"Jonathan!" I cried out loud.
My loud thumbs were heard everywhere around the house as I tried to literally jumb down the stairs. "Jon!" I tried again.
With a paled face I slided into the kitchen, all my brothers sat in there, preparing their breakfast.
That was odd.
Elijah tried to hide a smirk, I saw Xander turn away as he screwed up his face so he wouldn't laugh.
Caleb and Victor like always didn't even had to try, they could control their expressions perfectly.
"Good morning, sunshine! Why are you in such a rush?" Jonathan smiled at me widely, a small giggle escaped his mouth, as his eyes met mine.
He knew something.
"M-my presents, the o-ones my friends gave me..." I huffed out, their behavior confused me, but I had other things in my mind straight away.
My bottom lip started trembling, as I tried to explain what happened.
"S-somebody must have stolen them." I stuttered out, I sounded completely hysterical, not able to understand what was going on.
As Jon understood that I was on the edge of tears, his happy smile disappeared.
"Oh, no, nobody stole them!" He rushed to my side, taking my face into his hands. "Don't cry, we took them!"
"W-what? Why would you do that?" My widened eyes stared directly into his.
Taking my presents wasn't part of my punishment, was it?
"Come! In the living room stands the answer to your question!" Elijah took my hand, pulling me behind him.
"Wait! We wanted to show her together!" Xander called out, taking my other hand to stop him, so we stood in the hallway.
"Ugh, fine." Elijah rolled his eyes, as he waited for our other brothers to walk behind us.
As we arrived in the living room, my mouth opened in awe.
A big Christmas tree stood next to the wall, it was decorated with colorful fairy lights and on the top was a big star.
"We made this all in the night!" Jon sounded proud. "Surprise!"
"We wanted you to put on the star, but somebody thinks he is still the baby of the family." Victor explained to me, as he scanned my face.
"Hey!" Elijah sighed, as he gave Victor a look.
On the bottom of the Christmas tree I could register my two presents.
Some tears escaped my eyes, as I sobbed in relief. "Oh god, I thought they were gone."
"Oh, Lil! You're crying!" Jon said worried, he put his arms around my shoulders as he hugged me from behind.
"I know, the tree is so perfect, I would cry, too." Xander put his hand through his hair.
Elijah nodded in approval and Caleb just rolled his eyes at them.
"She didn't start crying, because of the tree." Caleb told them, making the twins completely puzzled.
"What? Why?" Elijah asked in disbelief, his eyes met mine.
"The tree is very beautiful!" I assured him. "But these are my first Christmas presents I ever received, I just got so scared that something might have happened to them."
"Your first." Xander repeated my words, as he and Elijah seemed like a world broke down for them.
"Don't worry, Lil. They won't be your last!" Caleb motivated me.
"He's right, Santa Claus will bring you a lot of presents, too." Victor's voice startled me.
It was weird hearing him talk to me in a childish way.
"Santa Claus will give me more presents?" I turned around to face him, my suprised expression made him widen his eyes a little.
I knew that he meant themselves and that he only said Santa Claus to make it sound magical, but would I really get presents from them?
"Why wouldn't he?" He raised an eyebrow, while he eyed me.
"Well, I was bad?" I told him more like a question.
"Hm, but you learned your lesson and apologized, didn't you?" Victor gave me a small smile.
"Yea." I mumbled, fidgeting around with my fingers.
"So Santa Claus will come for you and for everyone else in this house."
His way of talking about Santa Claus reminded me of a father.
In a weird way Victor is a father, well he acts like one and he has us kids to look out for.
"End of this talk!" Jon clapped his hands. "Let's go have breakfast!"
We all followed him into the kitchen and had a delicious breakfast.
After that I helped Jon, Caleb and Elijah to decorate the other rooms, while Victor needed to drive to some stores.
Xander got the task to clean up the guest room where our father will be staying.
"There isn't much time." Jon sighed, after he came back checking how far Xander was with the cleaning.
"What do you mean, Dad will arrive in some days, there's lots of time." Elijah laughed.
Caleb clicked his tongue. "You understand that we need to clean the whole house before he arrives and cook a welcome dinner."
"That takes a lot of time!" Jon sighed, counting the days on his fingers before this man will arrive. "And then there are only two days before Christmas and on Christmas eve Grandpa will arrive, too!"
Jon walked around in the living room, while the three of us sat in the couch.
I bit my lip, only thinking about my father made my mood terrible.
There was now way out for me, having another talk with him would become reality soon.
I only hope he won't ruin my first Christmas with my kind of loving family.
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Stay safe!
Xx Mary