• (Ch cool ***(Winter Break)

    Alaya tried to talk to him alone, she really did. But he was always with someone else, either her brothers, Mairi or some of his other friends. She was so involved in getting him alone so she could talk to him she almost forgot about what date was coming up real soon. Luckily she had Mistletoe to remind her. The very next day, which was December. 21st, they headed outside to the boo buses to go into town. As they crossed the courtyard, Alaya felt a small drop of water on her nose. She peered up into the sky and was greeted by tonnes of big, white snowflakes, just tumbling from the sky!

    “Oh my gosh!” Alaya cried, “the first snow of the season. And it looks like it’s going to be coming down hard soon!” she and Mistletoe jumped for joy. But their celebration was short lived because just then the bus honked its horn and they rushed over to board it before it left.

    The mall was gorgeous. It was decorated even more than it had been before the dance. For some odd reason Alaya had her camera with her so she took tonnes of pictures to show her brothers when she got back. She checked her wallet and checked that she had her fifty dollars and the Christmas “to buy” list. She would have to split off from Mistletoe later to get her a gift. They quickly rushed over to the directory to find the best places to get the items on their lists. My brothers are fairly easy to buy for, Alaya thought as they rushed to the elevators, and so are Mistletoe and Mairi, but Justin, he’s kinda hard to buy for. She decided to ask Mistletoe for advice later.

    *

    There she was again. And yet again. Everywhere Justin turned he saw Mairi waving or smiling at him. Christmas was coming soon and it seemed that Mairi was determined to catch him under one of the many bunches of mistletoe that lined all the hallways.

    He was also upset because he hadn’t seen Alaya at the dance and now he was having trouble finding her anywhere else. It seemed as if she was avoiding him, he just catch glimpses of her in the crowds in the hallways, but whenever he tried to get a closer look or catch up to her, she disappeared. But why? He had asked Mairi if she knew anything and she replied that Alaya was probably doing some Christmas stuff and didn’t want anyone to find out what she was doing.

    That then reminded him about all the stuff HE had to do for the upcoming date. He had taken the boo bus into town the week before so now all he really had to do was wrap all the gifts. Then he would have to worry a little less about Alaya’s brothers finding all the gifts under his bed. Alaya and Mairi had been the hardest to buy for because he didn’t want to get something for Mairi that suggested something he didn’t mean, like that he was really interested in her, and Alaya was hard to buy for because he wanted something to suggest that he liked her. But the problem was he didn’t want it to be too subtle or too obvious. He was still debating whether or not the gift he finally bought was good enough. He hoped so.

    He was staring out the window at the snow that was beginning to come down faster and thicker, thinking about the gift he had bought Alaya and which wrapping paper to wrap it in when a knock came at the door. He hastily, but carefully, pushed everything back under the bed.

    “Come in,” he called, “the door’s unlocked!” which was a stupid thing you idiot, he thought to himself, never wrap gifts with the door unlocked. It was Mairi.

    “Hey, could you hide Kiki and Angel in here for a bit?” Mairi asked quickly, “ We’re having a dorm check and we can’t let the advisor see the dogs or she’ll take them away.”

    “Um sorry Mairi, but I can’t,” Justin replied, “I have some important stuff to do and they’ll just get in the way. Sorry” he added as she glared at him.

    “But we need a place to hide them and you agreed to watch them” she cried at him, a strange fire flaring up in her eyes, “besides what could you have that’s so much more important than this! Fine, I’ll go ask some of our other good friends! Jerk!” she screamed at him as she slammed the door behind her. What was that all about, Justin thought horrified. He slowly got up and locked the door so he could wrap presents in peace.

    *

    “All Ghost Hills students to the main entrance” a voice announced loudly over the PA. I wonder why they want us back now, Alaya thought to herself, we still have an hour left of shopping. Alaya asked Mistletoe and she replied that she had no idea. They both shrugged their shoulders and headed for the main entrance.

    “Alright everyone,” the head chaperon barked, “we have to leave early because of the heavy snowfall that has come down and made the roads hard to navigate and we have a long drive ahead of...” she trailed off as one of the other chaperons came over and whispered in her ear, “scratch that, we have to stay here. The roads are too dangerous and everyone has been advised to stay where they are.” There was a chorus of groans from all the students, they didn’t want to stay here, they wanted to go back to school to get ready for Christmas. The head chaperon then began barking out orders to everyone.

    During the night a total of twenty students had tried to sneak out to fly to school. Out of that number fifteen had made it outside and by the morning seven of the students that had made it outside were still missing. Everyone was very worried. The roads had improved during the night so everyone got on the bus and was told to keep an eye out for the missing students, if they were spotted, the student was ordered to shout out that they had found one. During the long drive back to school it began to hail. But luckily all seven of the students were found. They got many, many punishments for sneaking out, but the kids were so happy to be warm and safe that they didn’t really give a hoot.

    When they got back to school everyone rushed out to tell, or exaggerate rather, what had transpired the night before. Alaya and Mistletoe rushed back to Alaya’s room so that they could get most their wrapping done before Christmas, which was in three days, but they had to give the presents to the delivery room before the twenty-fourth, so they actually had only two days. Alaya decided that she would wrap Mistletoe’s present later, when she wasn’t around. In the mean time though, they shared wrapping paper and ribbons and laughed at Angel’s crazy puppy antics.