Aubrey Garcia's Journey home.

Chapter Thirty Four.

"Alright, who let the dog eat the Christmas tree ornaments?"

Arthur continued to attempt to swallow a small plastic Santa, and Aubrey yelped and quickly snatched the toy from his mouth, then scolded him for trying to eat it. "Okay, but why did Arthur try to eat the Santa, but leave the popcorn?" Aubrey asked, frowning at the ornament as she hung it back up on the tree.

"Because you made it."

Aubrey smacked Leon with a pillow, earning a completely evil grin from him. He ran off, supposedly to go tell Mum. Aubrey rolled her eyes, and accidentally stepped on the button that turned on the Christmas tree lights. She winced and covered her eyes, the bright rainbow lights too much for her at the moment. Carter giggled and turned the lights off for her then went back to reading a spiderman comic.

"That stuff will rot your brain." Aubrey muttered, grabbing a real book.

"What do you mean? I used to read comics at his age and I turned out fine!" James argued, popping his head out of the kitchen. "Debatable." Eliana said from the other side of the room looking up from her notebook. James threw a spoon at her hitting her right on the nose, making her laugh.

"Ow." She said teasingly, an easy smile on her face. The Christmas tree really was something to behold, an eight foot tall fake tree coated with tons of fake snow. They didn't really have a whole lot of real trees in the area and it was much too expensive to buy them so they had decided on a fake one. It had rainbow colored lights decorated with popcorn, ornaments, and an assortment of random candy's thrown into it. Lexi grabbed a candy cane off of the tree, popping it into her mouth.

"I saw that!" Aubrey cried, and Lexi smiled shyly.

"Sorry..." She murmured quietly, making Aubrey laugh.

"I was just kidding. Oooh is that a mint?"

Aubrey immediately grabbed a mint from the tree, her mom walking in at just in time to watch her swallow it.

"Aubrey Garcia! Stop eating the decorations! You're just as bad as Arthur!" Aubrey snorted and crammed another one into her mouth, earning a disapproving glare from her Mom.

"Okay fine! I'll stop eating the tree!" She yielded, throwing her hands up in surrender. "Good." Her mom said with a smile, going back to folding her laundry. "Look what you've done!" Aubrey said to Lexi, a grin on her face. Lexi smiled sheepishly and murmured an apology to her. "It's cool. Now, who wants to go ice skating?" James raised an eyebrow and said, "Ice skating? Do you have money? Is there even an ice skating place in the area?"

Aubrey nodded and said, "Yes to all three of those. Now who's up for it?" Eliana shrugged and raised her hand, followed by Lexi who agreed the second Eliana had. James raised his hand as well, and Aubrey whooped. "Do we need a reservation?" Lexi asked, narrowing her eyes at Aubrey. "Nope! The skating is free. The skates are not."

"Huh." Lexi said, and grabbed her bag and her mobile phone. "Are we ready to go?" She asked politely as she fastened up her shoe laces. Everyone nodded, so they grabbed their bags, and split up into separate cars. "Ok, I'll take Lexi." James said, and Lexi wilted a little bit. "Cool! I'll take Aubrey." Eliana said, completely oblivious to Lexi's disappointed sigh. "Okay then, let's go."

-----

Aubrey's first impression on the ring was cold. This fact really shouldn't have surprised her, as it was an ice skating ring after all. But she was still surprised none the less.

"It's so cold!" She muttered, rubbing her hands together.

"It's not that cold. It's just..." Eliana struggled for a word for a moment, before saying "chilly. It's just a little chilly."