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White Christmas

It was something like five days before Christmas, and all through the house not a person was stirring- not even Catstor and his new mechanical toy mouse. The stockings were all hung, and the garlands were too, and their three Christmas trees were oh, such a view. Aidan and Zora and Lucas and Michael, Jada and Vainey and Giulia and... okay, well, she was running out of things to rhyme with Michael unless she came up with something like a tricycle. OH! They were nearing the middle of their sleepy night cycle. There, that was good. Well, for everyone but Giulia, who wasn't actually asleep at all, but was staring at the clock in the corner, and the little ballerina night light. The fireplace, cheerfully crackling the sweetly-scented wood in her carefully-grated fireplace, so she could not accidentally get into it, or throw something in that should not go there. How could she sleep, with so many she loved who were so very close to her? Maybe she should go slip to Aidan's room, and curl up with him? Or maybe Jada would be awake? Would Lucia be awake this late, and want to meet up with her as Ara?

She was curled up there, warm and toasty, when outside her window, she heard the hum of a song. I'm dreaming of a white Christmas / Just like the ones I used to know / Where the treetops glisten and children listen / To hear sleigh bells in the snow As the words drifted through her room, it seemed almost as though the fire seemed to lose its cheer, the ballerina dimming. The room grew cold and uncomfortable, and she curled more tightly into herself, tugging the blanket around and turning to face the window. Oh, it wasn't strange to hear a caroler, she supposed- they came about in the movies all of the time. But never did they come around at this late in the night time- and never did they seem to be singing right outside the second-floor window. So there was that. And the song wasn't right, either.

The song was supposed to be singing about being merry and bright, but it seemed like it was a sad song, with lots of flat notes and bits that didn't sound quite like they did when this song was played on the radio. It sounded creepy, and not very fun to listen to, and her toes curled in the sudden chill that seemed to fill up the air around her. This song wasn't scary, but the way that it was being song was like there was something broken, and she didn't know what was happening. Or how they were singing- and she was too freaked out to go look outside her window. It was like... that Nightmare Before Christmas movie, and there might be scary ghosts outside who would try and do bad things! But almost as soon as it had started, the song seemed to end, and then there was only silence. The chill that had come with the song lingered, and Giulia buried her head under the blanket, trying to huddle into what little warmth was left, hiding from the strangely dimmed light in her room.

Taking down Christmas decorations was something that usually didn't happen until after New Year's, but this year Zora and Lucas wanted to help take everything down and they didn't know if they would be around at the usual take-down time. So here the family was, a couple of days after Christmas, pulling the delicate ornaments off the tree and packing them away in their bubbled wrappings for another year. Tinsel and garlands pulled off of the trees, from the balconies, ribbons pulled down and tucked away to be donated, or... whatever happened to the decorations that they weren't going to use again. Giulia honestly had no clue as to how decorations went away after the important ones were tucked away.

The young girl was lifting a flass-and-gold filigreed ornament from the tree, admiring it as she went. She stepped backwards, humming happily- and squeaked, as one of her small feet made contact with a thin feline tail. Castor howled accusingly, and Giulia managed to make another noise- hopefully apology- before she and the ornament fell forward as one. The ornament hit the table, and her head hitting the carpeted floor next to it. The glass ornament shattered, the sparkles frighteningly close to her face, and- Oh-! She inhaled, wondering if the sparkling dust she thought that she could see was a sign she might have bumped her whole head against the table too, or just pieces of the filigree, and the sound of her family's shock-burst of noise faded away into...

The song was sedate and traditional, and around her, everything was bland. Her siblings were nearby, she could see them- Jada, dressed in a gold dress, probably with pretty shoes to match, her hair done up. Zora, sedate in black with a holiday sash. A pretty blonde with many curls, a navy blue dress and emeralds. Lucas, strangely young, dressed in a suit and tie. Everyone so silent, and while it was Christmas, there was no cheer. There was no laughter, no warmth. Her shoes hurt, and her toes wriggled, and she caught herself squirming. There was a wetness in her diaper (and why was she wearing a diaper?), but she already knew she shouldn't complain about it. Next to her, Aidan was using strangely small, chubby fingers to squish at his potatoes, giving a loud little giggle as gravy flew somewhere, and then-

At the end of the table, a woman who looked like Jada, but with lime eyes, lifted a bell. “Amélie, sors-les d'ici." her voice was cold, almost bored, and when she looked at Giulia, there wasn't any more love in her eyes than when someone looked at a... disappointing pet. None of the siblings looked up from their soup, except for the blonde, who peered at their mother, then at them, something sly in her gaze and a curl to her lip. As she was lifted from her chair, she could hear crying, but there was no pity in the lime gaze that met her own, only irritation. And then the gaze was gone, and there was nothing but the music moving on to the next song.

Her body was rolling, and she was peering up at Jada's worried face, Zora's bright eyes, Lucas' face between the black and red heads of his older siblings. "C'mere, princess trouble," Lucas said, and Giulia held up her arms to her brother, letting him lift her from the ground. "There we are. Does your head feel okay?" she nodded, and buried her face in his shoulder, in the t-shirt he was wearing, contrasting the fading memory with the laughter they'd had just a few days before, Jada in blue jeans, Lucas in his sweatpants and looking rumpled as he helped Aidan dig through presents, Zora in her neon exercise shirt. A heavy sigh came from her small frame, and she could feel Lucas half-shrug.

"I want a cookie," she said, and thought she heard a laugh, before someone wiggled one of her bare feet. "A chocolate one."

"We'll see what we can do," Lucas said with amusement, and they headed out... but Giulia was still carrying that old, sad memory with her.

Mother's Day Thoughts

Mother's Day was always an interesting adventure in the Montgomery-Chamberlyn household, and with the addition of one "Hope" child, Giulia didn't expect that it was going to get much better. Not to mention, this year they had needed to do something for Yvainey, since the babies were still too little. Giulia and Aidan already celebrated two mothers- Jada and the stranger who had let them live in her tummy, then gone to Heaven when she and Aidan were still babies. One more mother really wouldn't be a bother to them, and Giulia was happy to help pick up the slack where her little sibling-cousin-things were involved. The teachers didn't like hearing about their first mother, shuffling awkwardly when they mentioned her, so they had always did their mother's day preparations with their sister in mind. Or wound up having to. This year was going to be different.

Both Jada and Vainey had gotten a little card purse that they had made out of construction paper, with the rest of the class. Giulia and Aidan had both done half the work on each purse, so they could say it was from both of them. And they had colored these fluffy little coffee filter flowers with the class, and that was fun.

Their teacher had brought in all kinds of colored markers, and some little paper squishy-fluff things (they hadn't actually seen a coffee filter before, so that had been an experience) and then there had been waxy papers, and fuzzy wire thingies. They had scribbled all kinds of colors on the filters, and then they had sprayed water on it. Just a little water, but it made the marker colors get all mixy, and 'bleedy' even though there was no bleeding? And then they had put all the filters on the waxy paper and let them dry until the next day, in the window.

Then, they'd had to do like, oo gi gamey or something and make all the colors fold, and then flip, and the teacher had helped them tie the fuzzy pipes, and then they had done something to make all the colors really fluffy, and wound up with flowers! Aidan had made a whole dozen of the flowers, cause he was a mama boy, even though Jada wasn't actually their mom, and Vainey wasn't either. Giulia had just made 3, one for each of the mothers they had to celebrate, even though their first mother couldn't come and visit them from Heaven. The teacher had helped them 'plant' all the flowers in little pots (though Aidan only got to plant a few of his because he was selfish and made too many) and that helped them stay up right.

Then they had gotten ink, and used their fingers to paint cards! That was always fun. Not as fun as the macaroni frames they had gotten to make in second grade, but a lot more fun than having to just be boring and use crayons and markers again! At least... it had been fun, until one of the little boys in her class had decided to eat the paints. Boys really were so dumb, they were like- the stupidest. Giulia had taken lots of pictures of her hard work to send to Lucia, and to send to cookie, and to send to Yvaine, because she was really proud. But she couldn't send the pictures to Yvaine because it was supposed to be a surprise. So it was just Lucia and Cookie.

They had put the little 'planters' carefully in their backpacks that Friday, the cards secure in their little folders, to keep them from crinkling. Giulia, at least, was excited- this weekend would be fun, and she had gifts for all kinds of important people! MAybe she'd even be able to convince Aidan to give a thank-you flower to Cookie? That would be nice...

Still, as she pulled the pots and cards out from their backpacks, setting them where things would not fold or bend or fall over before they could be presented, Giulia wondered what other families were like. The ones with only one mom, who hadn't gone to Heaven, and maybe not twins, so everything had to be done all by themselves. Was it lonelier? Was it better? Was it harder? Or was it just... different?

Her lips pursed, and she considered it, as she pulled out her ballet practice clothes and ran downstairs to get ready to exercise.