Veil of Shadow and Rain ✓ [TSC #1]

Chapter 15 - A Very Merry Christmas ... or Not

Very soon, it was Christmas. The school grounds lay thick with snow, and the Palace was almost drowned in it. After Wren and Odyssey made up over their little fight, they'd gone out to the Palace gardens to have a snowball fight. Later on that day, Wren spent her afternoon wrapping Christmas presents for all her friends.

Ladislaya had gone home for the holidays. She'd gone home just a day before Christmas, and Jake and Wren watched as she departed on a harmless, flying dragon.

'Aren't you going home?' said Wren to Jake.

'No,' said Jake cheerfully. 'Told Mum I wanted to stay for Christmas! You know, it'll be fun, celebrating with Luxe and Ethan and everyone else. They haven't gone home.'

The two trudged back into the Academy and into the Great Hall, where they were greeted by a chorus of 'Merry Christmas!' from their fellow classmates. Luxe was dressed in a red and white outfit and apparently, she'd charmed a snowball to never melt so it would perch on top of her nose like a rabbit.

Estella was sitting on a green beanbag, her arms folded. Apparently, Luxe had dragged her into the celebration. It was just the lot of them, with Duncan, Jared Levisay, Tyler and Theodore. Surprisingly, Aurora was there, huddled up on the bench, laughing away on one of Tyler's jokes.

'Happy and healthy, don't you think?' Jake murmured in Wren's ear. Wren nodded.

'Hello, you lot,' said Jake cheerfully, helping himself to some pudding.

'Presents, everybody!' shouted Tyler, whooping. 'Here, Wren - here's yours, from me -'

'Thanks, Tyler, cheers!' said Wren enthusiastically. 'Here - here's yours -'

'Super, Wren!' cried Tyler, unboxing the present on the table to find a box of chocolates and two tins of sweets. 'Awesome - this is my cue to have a sugar rush.'

Wren had a wonderful Christmas. Jake gifted her a tin of chocolate fudge that changed taste every three seconds, Corinne gave her a pair of diamond-studded earrings (even though Wren hadn't had her ears pierced), Luxe's present was a doll that whenever you stroked it, it screamed 'MAGGOTS!' so loudly the entire Hall was deafened. Tyler had given her a joke-book and inside were the most useful tips on how you could skip class convincingly and how to get sick without actually getting sick (Jake was jealous of the book, of course). Matteo Sternflair's present to her was a model of a wand (she was delighted; 'I didn't know what you really liked but I overheard you saying you really wanted a wand but you know we're not allowed to have one.').To Wren's utter surprise, Aurora handed her a present that contained a tin of sugar cookies that apparently she had baked herself. The sugar cookies had Wren's name baked on it, and Wren, feeling rather touched and awkward, accepted it with much grace.

'Er - thanks, Aurora,' she said, feeling rather guilty to have not wrapped a present for her. 'I wasn't expecting you would turn up today - er - how's your wound?'

'It's better,' said Aurora, smiling a thin, forced smile. Wren returned it lamely and turned around to bang into Jake.

'She gave you a present?' said Jake in horror.

'I know, and I'm starting to feel guilty to not have wrapped on for her,' said Wren.

'She's evil!' whispered Jake.

'Shut up!' whispered back Wren. 'She's just - well, she's just looking for Shadow Angels, isn't she? She's not -'

'Hey, Wren, have a Christmas cracker!' shouted Luxe from the end of the Hall, hopping up and down excitedly. The topic of Aurora was dropped as Wren went over to Luxe and tugged to reveal a living rabbit out of the cracker. Luxe decided she would have it as her pet and named it 'Cinnamon'.