Keepers of Ice

Christmas Special

"Ugh! Not again," Stacey groaned in frustration.

Chloe laughed beside her. "Don't tell me you burned the sausages again."

Stacey stared at the barbeque pit with a pout. The dark spots on the sizzling sausages seemed to stare back at her as if emphasizing her terrible cooking skills. "It's not my fault! I've never really cooked before and you know how I feel about fire," she replied defensively.

Chloe placed a hand on her shoulder. "Alright, if you can find someone else to take your place, I'll let you off. We all know you'd rather chillax with your boyfriend at the pools anyway."

Stacey frowned. "But who should I ask? My brother can't cook either and we all know Hailey's even worst. Remember the last time we asked her to make a salad?"

"Oh my gosh, she nearly blew the whole house up... I don't even know how someone can be that bad," Chloe said with a chuckle. "How about Estella?"

"Yeah, I'll ask her. I'm pretty sure she can cook better than any of us... apart from you of course."

Chloe gave her an amused look. "You do know that sizzling sausages isn't meant to be difficult right?"

Stacey rolled her eyes and began walking towards Hailey's swimming pool. Her boyfriend was sitting on one of the white chairs beside the pool and he waved at her with a smile when he noticed her. She waved back and told him that she would join him soon. Her light blue eyes swept across the pool and she noticed Hailey sunbathing on one of those giant doughnut pool floats. She was wearing dark sunglasses and rather skimpy bathers, but that was kind of expected of Hailey. Stacey then saw David and Estella chatting happily in one of the corners of the swimming pool and she instantly felt bad for having to disrupt them.

Still, she walked towards them and cleared her throat. "Hey Estella, could you help Chloe with lunch? I kinda burned the sausages. Twice."

"Sure thing, I'll be there in a sec." Estella planted a kiss on her brother's cheek, swam to the side and began to climb out of the water.

Stacey ignored the annoyed look her brother was giving her and gave Estella a grateful smile. "Thanks so much. If I tried to cook any longer, I would've poisoned you all to death before Christmas even comes tomorrow."

Estella giggled. "No worries! You go and enjoy yourself for a while," she said with a wink as she gestured at Cody with her eyes.

With the burden of sizzling sausages off her shoulders, Stacey skipped happily to Cody, grabbed one of the plastic chairs and sat beside him. "Hey babe, hope I didn't keep you waiting for too long."

Cody switched off his phone and beamed at her. "It's fine, I was busy surfing the web for some ideas on what to do tonight anyway. I mean, it's Christmas Eve, and the gang's all here. So, we might as well do something fun as a group tonight, right?"

Stacey and her friends had decided to spend Christmas Eve at Hailey's place since her parents were out for the day and did not mind her throwing any parties. As long as nothing was broken and any mess was cleaned up before they got back home. Plus, Hailey's family was rich and lived in a large, fancy house with a swimming pool. At first, Hailey had suggested inviting half the school but after a serious argument with Chloe, they decided to invite a small group including David, Estella and Cody.

"That's true, but what do you have in mind?"

"We could go bowling or ice skating at the city tonight. They're great activities for a group of about six teenagers and won't involve the police visiting us at midnight," Cody replied. "Anyway, do you want to go for a swim?"