New Jersey is one of the most beautiful destination all around the globe. Every single day here is amazing and full of excitement.
Talking about winter, the cold winter months tend to make the pleasant and stunning city even more beautiful. New Jersey in winter looks like a different world altogether.
During the winter months, the temperature seems moderate with slow swings of winds. Snowfall in the town was about to begin. It was almost the end of November and the school declared it as the commencement of holiday, as well indicating the end of this academic year.
Mia and her friends have successfully completed their academic year and were about to get into senior year. And this was going to be their graduation year. They would no more be referred as teenagers.
December, this month was all about Christmas.
At the beginning of the month, they all agreed to meet every single day without fail. But it's been two weeks and 5 days and none of them had met at least once.
The holidays went on with messages and phone calls. Elena's mom and dad took her to her grandparents home for the Christmas, which was at Rockville, Maryland.
So, she wouldn't be at New Jersey with her friends to celebrate Christmas. It happens every single year, ever since they have known Elena.
It's a part of her family tradition to celebrate Christmas at her grandparents home where she gets to meet her uncle, aunt and her cousins from all over the country.
On the other hand, Mia prepared a family Christmas bucket list. And she tried to fulfill the things she mentioned in her bucket list.
MIA'S BUCKET LIST FOR THIS CHRISTMAS :
♡Go ice skating with dad and justin.
♡Go skiing with friends
♡Bake cookies with mom and Sponsor it to the foundling home.
♡Make hot chocolate by myself
♡Have a sweater party
♡Drive around and look at lights at night.
♡Prepare Christmas gifts for friends.
♡ Build a snowman (yeah, it's cringey)
♡ write a letter to Santa( cringey as well)
♡ take out beautiful Christmas photos with family and friends
♡ christmas movie marathon
♡ decorate a Christmas tree
♡ show kindness throughout the season.
♡ read book each night before sleep.
In the past two weeks, she tried to complete few things from her bucket lists. She prepared cookies with her mom and delivered it to the foundling home.
Mia's dad took her to the ice house, which was opened for the purpose of skating. Competitions were organized by the authorities of the place and Mia participated in it. She got few prizes by winning the competition.
Mia comes here every year since her sixth grade, during her holidays to learn ice skating. She learned to make hot chocolate by herself. Justin and Izzy loved her preparation and asked more of it.
She purchased Christmas presents for her friends. She missed them terribly, missed having them around, missed their nonsense talks, missed their fights, missed the way they loiter around the school for no purpose.
She missed every single minute she spent with them. And it's hard to miss people. Missing creates a value for their presence. Mia missed the old days, a month ago when they met each other regularly at school.
The pain of parting is nothing compared to the joy of meeting again. She wished to meet them soon.
It was Mia's persistent demand of getting a Christmas tree for this Christmas, her dad purchased a medium sized conifer, it was fir tree.
Finally Mia had a Christmas tree to decorate. She and Izzy worked on the decorations while Rebecca baked cookies and muffins for them. Ben prepared for his admission exams to enter the cambridge university.
It was a misty musty morning and windy with snow fall. Mia's phone sings 'live while you are young'.
"Hey, Adam", Mia was surprised to receive a call from him out of the blue.
"Minion, it's been a long time. How about we meet?? now??", asked Adam.
"What?? Now?? Where?? When?? ", declared Mia .
"One question at a time. It's been a long time. So let's meet at my house, then plan things later. I spoke with Jane about this and she said it would be great to meet after such a long time. So, she'll pick you up. You girls decide about the timing", claimed Adam.
"Great, let's meet. Will call her soon!!", assured Mia.
"Bye. Meet you soon", Adam hung up.
Mia dialled up Jane's number. Jane answered the call.
Jane : How are you ?? Have you even thought of meeting for once??
Mia : Hey, I should ask you the same. What's up? How are doing??
Jane : Better, actually good. But missing you guys. I have been working on a article, which would help me for my higher studies. And recently I have started writing articles for newspapers, planned on writing books as well.
Mia: Woah.... vibrant news for this day. You rock. Now I get it. You have almost forgotten me among this all.
Jane : No babs...never!! I planned on giving you a surprise visit. And Adam sensed it out somehow and drafted this idea of visiting today.
Mia : Anyways., when are we visiting him??
Jane : I'll pick you up by 10AM. Groom yourself soon.
Mia : See you soon.
.............
Mia chose to wear black tshirt with a pair of blue jeans and a trench coat on top. She picked up matching beanies and mittens along with a white scarf.
With blue stockings, she wore black boots. She was all black and blue.
Jane would arrive in a few minutes to pick her up. She was gonna meet them after 20 days.
The doorbell rings and it indicates the arrival of Jane. She rushes towards the door. Jane and Mia hugged each other in excitement. Happiness is meeting old friend after a long time and feeling nothing has changed.
"It's retrouvailles to meet you", cheered Mia.
"What?? Retro...something??", blurted Jane.
"It's retrouvialles, a french word, meaning- the happiness of meeting again after a long time", stated Mia and grinned. Jane smiled back.
"So, what's next!! What's the plan??", beamed Jane.
"Let's meet Adam first. And how about we go skiing in the campgaw mountain in the ski area. It would be great", insisted Mia.
"Sounds interesting. Come on let's visit him and proceed with our plan", stated Jane and they moved towards the driveway.
..................
Adam opens the door and let them in. They gave him a tight hug and a slap on this back. Because that's what best friends do.
They show you love and beat the hell out of you at the same time. They move towards his room where they find Alec waiting for their arrival.
"Hey, it's a surprise to see you here!! How have you been??", Mia moved towards him. He said nothing but hugged her tight.
This sudden action caught Mia off guard. She hugged him back and patted his shoulders. Alec seemed vulnerable and his hug was a long and tight one.
"So, how are you?", Mia asked breaking the hug.
"Fine", he said with a smile.
"Hey, Alec. How are you man!!", Jane and Alec shared a brief hug.
"Good. And you seem good as well, so there is no need for an how are you!!", stated Alec with a chuckle.
Jane smirked and moved near Mia, whispers something into her ears,
"Will he never change??".
"Never", Alec replied with a smirk.
Mia and Adam giggled at Jane, she stuck her tongue out at him.
"What's the plan for the rest of the day??", asked Adam pulling Jane's ponytail.
"How about skiing??", asked Mia and waited for their replies.
"Yeah, let's give it a try", agreed Adam.
"And you, Alec?", Mia asked him.
"Anything is fine", stated Alec.
"Campgaw mountain, here we come!!", cheered Jane.
......................
It was an one hour drive to reach the mountain. They reached the spot by 12PM. The white blanket of snow covered the ground and all over the place.
The mountain was too quiet. The smell of pine trees made the air feel fresh and clean.
"Gliding on snow with skis. It's gonna be fun", Jane moved towards the room, where they would get the skis and helmets to wear.
"Gear up, it's time to avenge", Adam sounded serious. The girls laughed hard seeing his fear which he was trying to hide for a long time.
"Aren't you excited Adam??", Mia teased him.
"A little, but I'm more of an excited nervous. I will just have to watch for a few minutes. It's almost been 2 years since I have done skiing", confessed Adam.
They geared up with skies and helmets, and moved slowly towards the start point.
Jane and Mia glided together in the snow with the same pace. The girls enjoyed gliding together.
They giggled seeing Alec and Adam waiting at the start point. The fear was clearly visible. Alec smirked and glided slowly leaving behind Adam alone at the point.
They had a wonderful time together laughing and giggling, skiing. The girls missed Elena, who would have enjoyed it if she was there.
There was a small play park near the skiing area. The park was covered with a sheet of fresh snow which would be suitable to play.
The girls insisted on playing in the park while the boys were importunate on having lunch at the nearest restaurant.
Finally the girls won making puppy faces. They parked the car and girls started running towards the park.
"Mia, do you want to build a snowman.??", giggled Jane.
"Of course. I wanted to do", shouted Mia in excitement.
After ten minutes into building snowman, the boys got bored up. They decided to make it interesting and made small snow balls to hit the snowman built by Mia and Jane.
The first snow ball thrown by Adam hit the face of the snowman and it was smashed. The girls turn around in shock.
"Hey, why are you guys being cheerless. Can't you see, we have almost completed", yelled jane, while Mia made the snowman face again.
The second snowball made by Alec smashed the face of the snowman again.
"Boys, grow up", hissed Mia. Jane was no longer quiet, she grabbed snow from the ground, made it into a large ball and threw it at Alec's face.
"Wow, brave act, my girl", Adam sends kisses in the air.
"You are so dead", Alec threw snowballs at Jane, without a break. She fell down on the ground cursing Alec.
Mia made large balls and threw at him. The balls hit his face continuously, which made them laugh hard. Literally, there was a snowball war between those four.
After 20 minutes of non stop playing, they were all elated. They laid straight on the ground and took a moment to relax.
They drove to the nearest restaurant to have their lunch. After having a heavy lunch, they drove straight to Adam's home.
"So, no Christmas tree??", Jane questions looking around in the living room.
"I'm not interested and I don't have the patience to decorate them. My mom is not interested as well", signed Adam sitting on the couch.
"Isn't it part of a tradition??", questions Jane.
"No it's not our tradition, it's actually the Germans. Germany is credited for the tradition of Christmas tree", stated Alec.
"And I have one at my home", smiled Mia.
"So, what we do?? Watch a movie for the rest of the eve?", asked Adam.
"Okay", they three agreed to watch a movie together.
"What do we watch? Christmas movies", Mia suggested.
"How about a Christmas Carol?", said Adam. Mia and Jane pouts at the same time.
"How about home alone2?", confessed Alec.
"Good. Let's watch it", agreed Jane.
Adam played the movie and sat beside Jane, while Mia and Alec sat together in the same couch. She gave him a side hug and he hugged her back.
On the other hand, Adam and Jane cuddled together in the sofa. Alec and Mia teased them for being so cheesy. But it was the best, beautiful and a contented Christmas evening.
.......................
Mia and her friends had so many happy moments this year; they expressed sorrow, love, affection, angriest moments, joy, friendship, negativity, fights, craziness, weirdness, been silly in this one year of their high school life. This is what life is.
We go through all emotions and when we try to stay positive in any negative situation, we win. And try to face everything with a smile on your face and a good heart.
Being happy isn't having everything in your life to be perfect. Maybe it's about stringing together all the little things. Accept everything with love in life and life will bloom with joy and happiness. All our days will be happier when we give people a bit of our heart rather than a peice of our mind.
Yeah, this is the last message I'm giving through this book, few things. This is the last chapter of this book. Hope you guys had a great time reading it all.
I have made two special chapters regarding their future. Promise to release it soon.
This chapter is special dedication to lot of people. And I wanted to tag gayathriskannan here. She's been a great supporter for me with or without her knowledge. So thank you for being there.