Walking Through the Time Capsule

Chapter 31

Walking Through the Time Capsule

Chapter 31

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Niall...

"Annabelle, Princess, wake up." I whispered in her ear while shaking her gently. She groaned softly and shifted a little. "Come on, everyone's already up. They're waiting downstairs." She finally started to gain consciousness as she fluttered open her eyes and looked straight into mine. "Merry Christmas, Princess." I said with a grin. 

The light in her eyes brightened as her own smile grew with the realization of what today was. "It's Christmas." She breathed. 

"It is. Now come on, let's go see if Santa came." I joked, causing her to hit me on the arm while laughing. 

I lead her out of the room and towards the stairs. Everyone was already waiting downstairs with a camera to capture her reaction. She hadn't had a real Christmas in such a long time, so we all made sure to make it extra special this year. We did all the typical stuff like putting out a bunch of cookies for Santa. Even though we were all older, we all had a blast baking together last night, especially Annabelle. We also did the other traditions of having a Christmas movie marathon and eating loads of food while blasting Christmas music. And since it was Louis' birthday as well, we had extra junk, including cake. So we had our own little party for both occasions. All of us together, just how we liked it. 

After Annabelle went to bed though, we all snuck around to add a few extra surprises. Like I said, we really wanted this Christmas to be special. 

"Merry Chris-" Annabelle started, but cut herself off when she finally came around the corner to the living room.

"Merry Christmas!" Everyone finished off for her. 

They were all standing around with a mixture of Santa and elf hats. Melanie held the camera in her hands, keeping it straight on Annabelle's face as she stared at the room in complete shock. Presents were flowing all around, stacked by the dozens. Most of them had her name on it too. We all thought she deserved to be spoiled since she missed out on so much. We had added more decorations, and hung things from the ceiling, to make things look ten times more festive, and the room was glowing with candles. 

"You guys." She cracked with joyful tears. "You didn't have to do all this."

"Of course we did. You deserve to have a propa Christmas mornin'." Melanie exclaimed, accent on full throttle. 

"Thank you guys. I love you all so much. Memories or no memories, I wouldn't trade you guys for anything." Annabelle squeaked, causing everyone to crash in a giant family hug. 

The hug lasted a few minutes before we all plopped ourselves on the floor. Our parents had sent us some things, and we all had stuff for each other, but most of the pile was still all for Annabelle, from all of us combined. We were so eager to see her open everything, that we all kept pushing our gifts towards her. She insisted that every few she opened, everyone else opened one too. Typical Annabelle I've always loved. She always wanted to make sure others were included, and that it was never only about her. That's a quality that always stuck with her, and I admired it. 

Two hours later, everyone was putting their things away in their rooms to help clear out the living room. We all had to help Annabelle since she had so much stuff. Between everyone, she received everything from clothes, shoes, jewelry, CDs and DVDs, Disney merchandise, new stuff for her room, and girl stuff like make-up and things. She was so grateful for everything, even the fleece blanket my mum sent her. Oh, and her favorite was of course the Disneyland season pass I got her. She was even more excited when I said I had some connections and got discounted passes for the rest of us too. We were planning on a trip there next week so she could see how amazing they decorate for Christmas. Needless to say, I think I won best gift award. Not that it was a competition or anything, but...