Jerome's P.O.V.
I woke up on Christmas morning to an excited boy bouncing on the foot of my bed, trying to wake me up by being as loud as physically possible. I sat up in bed and tackled him to the floor, my arms around his waist.
I buried my chin in his hazel brown hair and held onto him until he calmed down, still bouncing excitedly up and down in my arms. I felt like he had already had sugar even though it was only half past 7 in the morning and no one was meant to invade the stockings until everyone was downstairs.
"Jerome..." He whined, struggling to get out of my arms. "Let me go!"
"You gotta calm down a bit biggums, I know it's Christmas but you don't need to be so energetic." He pouted but settled down a little, scrolling through his phone until I let him go.
After a few minutes I spoke up again.
"You ready to go downstairs now?" He hummed.
"Yeah, I heard Preston and Rob up already but I don't know about Vikk and Lachy." I pulled him down the hall to Preston and Rob's room. I knew they were awake at once because I heard soft talking.
I knocked.
"Hello?" Called Rob's voice and I pushed open the door.
Preston and Rob were both curled up their separate beds, lying on top of their duvets and Preston didn't even lift his head when I came in the room. Rob looked around at me and Mitch.
"Hey guys, we going downstairs?"
"Yeah, Mitch didn't want to sit still any longer so I figured we should go down." Rob heaved Preston off his bed and almost onto the floor, dragging him up from the ground and into the hallway.
"Are tol bean and smol bean up?" I shrugged.
"I dunno, don't think so. If they aren't I'll drag them out of bed." I knew both of them had gone to bed rather late and would probably take a little while to get out of bed even though it was Christmas.
Mitch looked at me and I nodded for him to follow Rob and Preston instead of coming with me, because I knew he wanted to look through everything before any of it was opened.
I trekked down to the far end of the hall to Vikk and Lachlan's room, where everything was silent and dark. I pushed open the door and smiled when I saw the youngest two members of the Pack curled up on their beds, fast asleep.
I thought for a second before deciding to wake them gently, knowing if I pounced on them then it would likely come back to bite me in a the ass later because they had the best pranks.
I sat down on the side Vikk's bed first and shook Vikk's shoulder gently, watching, smiling, as he stirred and opened his eyes. I reached over and poked Lachlan's shoulder, giggling a little to himself when he glared at me and turned away.
"Come on you two, it's Christmas! Everyone else is up, you gotta get up now!" Vikk squinted and rolled over and I left them to wake up, knowing they would get downstairs eventually.
All three other boys were already hopped up and bouncing around the room, fighting with the bundle of pool noodles that had been lying inside the front door, from the pool outside that we couldn't use. It was winter and we were on the ski trip, so the pool was the last place we wanted to go, unless it was for a dare.
Whack A noodle hit Rob's head. Whack Another noodle hit Mitch's legs and he stumbled, falling on his butt. I laughed and pulled the noodle from Preston's hand because he was aiming it at me, wrapping my arms around his waist and hauled him across the room. Mitch squealed as Rob picked him up, throwing him onto the couch.
