Haven never expected to start receiving gifts twelve days before Christmas. They seemed to appear out of nowhere right when she needed them most. She wanted to figure out who was sending her these gifts, but the notes left with them didn't give anyt...
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Even though I don't have to, I still slide out of my bed at my soft alarm, the same one I use for school. Winter break has officially started today, but I'm not really going to relax much during this break. I want to get working on my Christmas village to get it ready for Christmas as well as finish up some art pieces that I've been working on before the end of the year. I have a lot of stuff I want to get done soon, and there isn't enough time during break to do it.
I glance over at Hartley, who's passed out in her own bed. She has a blanket with snowmen all along it wrapped around her instead of the other covers on her bed. She's so incredibly excited for Christmas and has been talking about how much she can't wait for it since December began, but I don't really share her enthusiasm right now. All I know is that it's just another day that people expect to get gifts from everyone in their lives. I don't need material things because I got the best gift I could have ever gotten a few years ago: a second chance at life.
Maybe that's why I don't really care that much about Christmas. I don't really need anything in my life to make me feel happy. I have all I need right here.
I pull Hartley's blanket closer to her face just how she likes it before walking slowly and quietly through the house. I don't want Grandma to hear me going outside this early because she'll have too many questions that I don't really want to answer. Besides, she should know by now that I usually spend all my spare time working on my art projects. Besides that, I don't have much of a life.
Quietly shutting the door behind me, I let out a breath of relief. No one heard me walking around, so now I'm free to work on my art projects without any interruptions for at least a full hour. That's better than I have been able to do lately because of school, which is such a relief to me. I really need to get back to work because it's been way too long since I got to be all by myself and do things I actually enjoy.
I climb up the ladder to my treehouse as quickly as I can. As soon as I step into my new treehouse, my shoes squelch in some strange liquid on the ground, the same liquid that makes my feet slide out from under me. Before I am able to catch myself, I fall backward toward the opening of my treehouse -- toward possible doom, that's for sure. My hands grip the edges of the doorframe of my treehouse, and I hold on as tightly as I can before falling down toward the ground. However, I don't have enough strength right now to pull me back inside.
My arms are screaming at me to let go of the edges of the doorframe. For just a second, I do want to do that because it would be much easier than spending the rest of my Christmas break with my peppy sister. She hasn't stopped singing Christmas songs at the top of her lungs every single time she wakes up. I could kill her for that.
I hear footsteps walking toward me, so I crane my head around and see Amy wandering into my backyard, presumably coming to see what Hartley and I are doing, though I'm not exactly sure why she's awake this early in the morning, either. Relief spreads through my chest at the sight of her. "Hey, Amy, could you come up here for a second?" I call out to her. She looks up at me in my treehouse and scowls. "I need a little help here."
