The Holly and the Ivy

Ding Dong Ding Dong

Adam and Holly made their way down to the dining room. Five places had been set around a large, round table, with a cheerful pinecone centerpiece in the middle.

"I hope you're hungry, because I made a lot of food," Alvita called to them from the kitchen.

"Enough to feed all of Queens," Adam muttered to Holly with a smile.

"I heard that!" Alvita called."You all laugh, but no one is going hungry in this house."

Alvita and Ivy came out of the kitchen carrying plates full of food and putting them down at each place setting. Ivy put Holly's in front of her, but ignored her when she tried to say thank you.

The food before Holly was unfamiliar, but the aroma was inviting. From what she could tell, it looked like rice and beans, cabbage, meat in some kind of sauce, and a cute mini bell pepper.

Alvita and Ivy sat, Darius said a quick prayer, and then the rest of the family began to eat. Holly picked up her fork cautiously, trying a taste of the mystery meat first. It was delicious: sweet, smokey, and unlike anything she had ever tasted before. She had a few more bites until she started to realize it was actually a bit on the spicy side. She decided to take a bite of the small bell pepper to help cool her mouth down.

Unfortunately, it wasn't a bell pepper.

After eagerly biting it, Holly was hit with overwhelming heat. She opened and closed her mouth like a dying fish, as she reached for a cup of water. But the water only made it worse, like dousing a fire with lighter fluid.

"Can't handle the heat, Holly?" Ivy asked sweetly.

Holly looked across the table at Adam's sister, who was watching her with an evil smirk on her face.

This wasn't part of Alvita's cooking, Holly realized. This was Ivy choosing to mess with her by sticking a painfully-spicy pepper in her food. The woman looked positively gleeful to see Holly panting with tears running down her cheeks.

She was not going to let this woman intimidate her.

So, while meeting Ivy's mirth-filled gaze with a cool one of her own, she took another bite into the pepper.

Ivy's eyes widened slightly, the reaction worth the immediate pain Holly felt.

"Oh, child!" Alvita exclaimed, noticing Holly's suffering. "How did that get on your plate? Those peppers aren't for eating plain."

Darius immediately stared at Ivy, freezing the smile on her face. "Ivy?"

"Just a fun little welcome-to-the-family prank," Ivy replied lightly.

Alvita let out a tirade in Patois at Ivy, probably thinking Holly wouldn't understand. But one of the perks of being a descendant of Santa was that she could understand any language. It was a gift she hadn't fully appreciated until now.

Once Alvita had finished thoroughly scolding Ivy, she turned to Adam.

"Get your girl some milk, she's turning into a tomato."

Holly's amusement was immediately replaced with embarrassment. She could feel that her face was flushed, and she guessed that the make-up Mistletoe had painstakingly applied was running down her face.

Not a cute look, to say the least.

Once Adam had gotten her some milk, which thankfully did help, and the excitement had died down, Darius started in with his questioning. Holly had naively hoped that she would get some pity from him, given that his daughter tried to torture her, but no such luck.

"So how did you two meet?"

"At a smoothie shop," Holly answered truthfully.

"The Jamba Juice?" Alvita asked