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The phone rattled off it's hook, the background instantly full of voices, giggling, Christmas carols, and several more voices arguing who the phone was actually FOR.

Unfortunately for Cordelia... one of the voices clamoring for the phone and trying to explain who the Carden's were... was Erik.

....snuffle...........sigh............................. rattle........ The person on the other end of the phone was exactly being helpful either, then with another rattle, a warm female voice pointed out.

"Elsie honey, you're supposed to introduce yourself...." Then more clearly. "Hello, you've reached the Corlione residence, Mrs. Corlione speaking."

"Oh!" Mrs. Corlione's voice brightened enough that she could have grown flowers with it. "You're that Cordelia girl. How nice! Yes he's right here." The phone became slightly muffled as a hand went over it, only partially muffling the sound.

"Erik? ERIK! It's Cordelia!"

More words were exchanged in the background, and there was a flury of hysterical giggling which sounded like it was coming from at least one, probably at least two, younger girls, followed by the familiar refrain of the rhyme against cooties... an "Ow!" and thundering feet before the phone changed hands again.

"Hey! Cordy!" He refrained from calling her "Bats" over the phone, though with the hysterical giggles occasionally cropping up in the background ((And some more rhymes. The words "Marriage" and "Baby Carriage" could be faintly made out.)) Maybe it was no wonder that he was refraining from using any nicknames that could be construed in... interesting lights. "Sorry! Olympic track jumpers couldn't have made it to the phone on time." He apologized, cheerfully.

This had been previously demonstrated, and Oddy had once equally cheerfully demonstrated the bruise from trying to jump the coffee table, and being tripped by co-conspiring siblings.

"Happy Holidays!"

"Sure, that sounds good!" At this point, even Oddy was willing to jump through a window if it meant briefly escaping yet another round of watching Christmas specials on tv, or listening to Frosty the Snowman being sung one more time.

The fact that even he was sick of it was a pretty good testament to exactly how many times it had been played by the youngest members of the visiting family members. It, and it's cousin the equally overplayed Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer were, at this point, pretty much inescapable, and the older kids were forbidden from playing anything 'too heavy' for younger sensibilities.

Skating actually sounded pretty refreshing, and like a good workout. Good workouts were relaxing.

"Where would you like to meet?"

((In the background, at least two voices went oooooOOOOOooooooh In teasing chorus.))

"Yeah I'll have to rent a pair." There were just too many kids in the household, and space was at a premium, let alone extra cash, and skates were pretty expensive for something with limited use. Especially since Skating fell far less under Oddy's normal interest than running, and he could walk around in running shoes, but not in skates.

Oddy seemed perfectly unphased by the tormenting tunes in the background, but then again, he -lived- with a large number of the giggling miscreants, so he'd developed a thicker skin when it came to their behavior. It had served him well.

"OK! I can be there then!" He promised, and then a slightly muffled. "No mom, it's the skating rink. They want you to buy stuff at the concession stand." A pause followed by. "Yeah mom I'll tell her." and then into the phone. "I'm supposed to make sure you know you can have all the cookies you want." he chuckled. "She thinks I'm running you ragged."

The latest excuse for trying to put some 'meat' on the bones of Cordelia Carden from Mrs Corlione, and probably not the last either, although Oddy was pretty sure that the only one running Cordy ragged was Cordy. Sure however that her son was dragging the 'pretty young thing' through all manner of wooded trails on their 'marathon training', Mrs. Corlione was hard to convince otherwise.

Oddy laughed. "She'll be glad to hear it." He told her. "I'll see you in an hour, and I promise not to wear anything TOO loud." He added, teasingly. Of course he was already planning what to wear himself, though his criteria was always a bit different than hers.

Oddy's fashion sense, as usual, tended to announce itself before he did, and his bulky, cozy looking sweater was hard to miss, though compared to some of the things he normally wore, the blue sweater, with it's changing shades and flecks of white, was actually fairly subtle, though the enormous scarf he was wearing, wrapped multiple times around and still trailing to surprising lengths. ((It looked like someone had knitted some kind of Christmas message into it, white on heathered navy blue, but it was impossible to read with so much of it twisted up.))

He grinned as he finally saw her, lifting a hand in a wave. Even his fingerless gloves looked like they'd been made by someone, with interesting cables and details down the back. Apparently it had been a good Christmas so far for knitted goods.

Actually, come to think of it, the only really ridiculous thing he was wearing... was the Santa hat. He pulled it on as he stood up from where he was sitting, hefting his rented skates in demonstration that he was at least halfway ready.

"Hey! I got skates!" He informed her cheerfully.