by R. J. Ross
"You don't mind if I invite the Hall, do you?" Mega asks as they get in the car. "Since we have the space--and I think a few of the others are feeling a bit left out. I'M not, of course--since I knew you'd ask me to be your helper, but you know how it goes."
"Not really?" Ward says after a moment of thought. And technically, he hadn't asked, he thinks dryly.
"You're our future," Mega says with a smile. "Actually YOU are MY future, Ward. I want to make sure you've got the perfect Advent Calendar gift, since I get the chance--I guess it's a little silly, huh?"
"No," Ward says, slowly, "it's not. Thank you."
The next morning the school climbs onto the bus, watching Ward with curious and sympathetic expressions. The entire SCHOOL knows he was shanghaied, he thinks as he goes to the front. "Well, um, Mega here is my helper," he announces. Mega shoots a shining grin at the group. "So we're taking you out to the movies--in a Mega sort of way," he adds with a hint of dry amusement. "For security, we've got the rest of the Hall coming, so don't dock my grade, okay?" he adds to Nico.
"I've heard," Nico says.
Ward sits down, listening as the rest of the group starts talking. He crosses his fingers, hoping that this will all go well. The sound of them gasping makes him glance up at the classic looking theater, complete with the red carpet coming out of the front. The hanging lit-up sign on the front says, "MERRY CHRISTMAS CAPE HIGH" and reporters are crowded outside, already taking pictures of the bus. He looks at Mega, raising an eyebrow.
"Masks on, everybody," Nico orders.
"It seemed like a good idea at the time?" Mega offers with uncharacteristic sheepishness.
"As long as they can't go inside," Ward says, getting up as the bus door swings open.
"Of course they can't. Now, let's go on in! We've got a nice line up of movies--including the entire Gremlins series in theater two," Mega says, standing and heading out the door. "For those of you that prefer the more traditional cartoons, you can see those in theater three. Theater one is for the newer Christmas themed movies--there will be a pamphlet given to you showing what's playing where, and when, and we'll finish in theater one, where Ward and I have a special surprise for you."
"We do?" Ward asks blankly.
"We do," Mega says firmly, motioning everyone in.
The day is spent running from one theater to the next, watching all sorts of things and eating all sorts of junk food. It passes quickly, and before they know it, both Cape High and Central Hall are gathered in the first theater, where Mega motions Ward over to the front. Ward hesitates, watching as a large menorah is placed on the table behind them.
"This is the first day of Chanukah--starting right about now," Mega says, glancing at his watch. "I will admit that I'm not religious, but I AM a Jew--yes, there are Jewish heroes, for those of you that are staring at me in shock. It's on my mother's side," he says, dryly. "And because Ward's shown interest, I can try my best. Chanukah is often called the Festival of Lights," he starts out. "And regardless of whether you're Jewish or not, there's a lesson in the story behind it that can apply to us all--how important it is to stay true to who you are, and to fight for what you believe in. Yes, even I can get something like that," he drawls, making the crowd laugh.
And after the story, Ward, himself, got to light the candle, just like he had hoped.
Advent Calendar - Day Seven
"You will eat cereal, and you WILL LIKE IT," Jimmi declares loudly to the mass of dorm kids in front of her. "The kitchen and cafeteria are off limits--even to you, Vinny!" she says before he can even open his mouth.
"But--" he says, only to stop as she glares at him.
"No kitchen for you," she repeats.
"But Voltdrain--" he tries again.
"No. Kitchen. For. You!" she says thumping a box of cereal on the table in front of them. They're in the den, but apparently they're expected to eat there, if the tall stack of bowls and three gallons of milk is an indicator. "We are going to be very busy for the next few hours, so everyone eat and shoo! There's snow left from Emily's day, you can go play in that, or play video games in the dorms, just as long as you don't go into the kitchen or the cafeteria, understood?"
Even the apartment kids nod in agreement, heading out to wait since they've already had breakfast. There are already spicy smells wafting from the kitchen and filling the building, tantalizing the group. And when Jimmi heads into the cafeteria they all tilt their heads to try and see inside. Jimmi's helper? The one and only Voltdrain--her dad. That actually hadn't been that surprising. What IS surprising, though, is that he came to cook.
"How are we doing, Papá?" Jimmi asks, rushing into the kitchen to help.
"It is a beautiful kitchen," he says, admiring the place. "Everything I could dream of is here for use. I can see why Vinny is so fond of it!"
"He wanted to come in and help, but I can't let him," Jimmi says, looking through the door of one of the ovens and taking a deep breath. "Oh, man have I missed this smell," she goes on, giving him a brilliant smile. "We tried making it once, but it just doesn't smell as good as when you make it."
"It is all a matter of practice," he says modestly. "Now go, you need to decorate the cafeteria--I did not bring up thirty star piñatas for them to lie forgotten in their boxes."
"We would have been just fine with one large one, Papá!" she says, leaning up to kiss him on the cheek before heading out into the cafeteria.
"I wanted each of the children to have their own," he says as she starts unpacking all the boxes. "They are the ones with the strings, so they will not have to be broken."
She laughs, shaking her head and pulling out the first stack of brightly colored plates. Soon the table is decked out in reds, yellows, and blues, leaving most of the center for the food to be placed. On each of the plates lies a small colorful star shaped piñata full of treats.
"It is a little early to be celebrating, though," Voltdrain says as he places another dish into the second oven and comes out to help her. "We do not traditionally start until at least the ninth."
"I know, but this was the day I was assigned, Papá. And it is nice to have you up here," she admits, giving him a shy smile. "I didn't realize how lonely it would be without you around all the time."
"I feel the same, Princesa," he says, walking over to hug her. "Now! You are not done with the decorations," he says, pulling away. "Go get the streamers and we will hang them, then we will decorate the tree!" Of course there's a massive tree outside, but they have a smaller one set up in the corner, now, ready for the brightly colored ornaments Voltdrain brought up.
Soon shining decorations hang from the ceiling and the tree is decked out in all its glory. Jimmi places the baby Jesus in the nativity scene under the tree and stands, looking over the room. "It's beautiful!" she says happily.
Voltdrain comes out with the last of the food, placing it on the table. "Now, you will lead the procession!" he tells her.
"Got it!" she says, racing off to change into her Christmas dress and grab a clear tube. She checks how she looks in the mirror, wondering for a second if Vinny will think she looks pretty, and then heads for the den, starting to sing Christmas carols as she goes. The tube she's holding lights up with her power.
Everyone playing video games looks at her blankly until she grabs Vinny's hand and hauls him to his feet, tugging him along until she reaches the next person. She repeats that until all of them are following her, some even singing. They head outside, going from one student to the next and dragging them into the makeshift parade. The group is quickly falling into the spirit, belting out the songs and laughing at the ones not on key. She leads them into the cafeteria when she's sure she's got everyone, and turns to face them with a smile.
"Feliz Navidad, everyone!" she says. "I thought I'd bring a little bit of the traditions my papa's taught me--and a lot of the food," she adds teasingly as they turn to look at the table, drooling. "Papá," she says, holding out a hand. Voltdrain steps forward, taking it. "Thi
s is my helper--my papá, Voltdrain," she introduces them. "He's the one that's provided the food and decorations. Each of you will get a small piñata, also from him. You'll find that Christmas is Papá's absolute favorite holiday. He goes all out."
"It is true," Voltdrain says with a little smile. "Christmas is a very important day for me."
"Papá is originally from Mexico," Jimmi starts out, "where they have a celebration called Las Posadas, which, um," she looks around, seeing their eyes more focused on the table than on her, "I'll explain later if anyone's interested, but what you will understand is that Papá and I are Catholic. We spend our Christmas Eves going to Mass at midnight and singing all the traditional songs, and we have a massive feast on Christmas day with all of our friends and loved ones. It's a beautiful time, which, um, I skipped last year," she admits a bit guiltily. "And this year I'm not going to be able to go, since I'm here. But we can at least do the massive feast and some singing!" she says. "Now, if you would pray, Papá, we can get to the food!"
She places her glowing tube on the table and reaches out, taking Voltdrain's hand with her right and Vinny's with her left. The others slowly fall into the hand-holding circle and Voltdrain starts to pray. When he's done, Vinny gives her a look. "If you'd have let me in the kitchen, I could have learned how to do all of this, you know," he complains quietly.
"Do not worry, Señor Vinny!" Voltdrain says cheerfully, "We have many years for you to learn our traditions."
Jimmi goes bright red. "Okay, time to eat!" she says, changing the subject and dragging Vinny to the table. The sound of her papá laughing echoes in her ears.
Advent Calendar - Day Eight
"Ladies and Gentlemen, if you would take an envelope from the hat," Max says, going from person to person. "For my day, we will be going shopping--but not just any shopping," he explains, holding the hat out to Malina. She reaches in hesitantly, taking one of the little of the unmarked envelopes. "This is going to be a secret Santa game. Inside your envelope you will find a name, thirty dollars, and a prompt. Your gift has to be connected to the prompt in some way or another."
"Who's your helper?" Jack asks, taking an envelope.
"You are," Max says. "And so are you, Ace."
"I don't remember signing up for helper duty, do you?" Jack says to Ace.
"Of course we didn't," Ace says. "Let me guess, I'm going to have to keep metal mouth hidden, on top of it."
"I didn't know you were a telepath, too, Ace," Max says, faking a stunned expression. "But just imagine how entertaining having me in your debt would be."
The two look at each other, and then say, "I'll do it."
"I thought you'd say that."
Vinny's holds up a piece of paper, looking at Max with a slight twitch of the lips. "You want me to buy something... avant-garde," he says.
"Is that a problem?"
"It's obscure," Vinny says.
"What's um... Ska?" Carla asks.
"Oh! Oh! Tell me you have me!" Emily says, heading for her excitedly. Carla disappears before she gets close.
"Nuh uh, it's a secret!" Carla says from across the room.
"So I'll give you a bit of time to look up your terms, if you need to," Max says, "while Ace prepares our mode of transportation."
"You're kidding me--I'm on bus duty?" Ace demands, almost dropping his envelope.
"Can we make, or have the gift made?" Vinny asks. "Because I'm not going to find something good for thirty bucks--not avant-garde."
"For thirty bucks and help with my job I'll draw you something," Ace offers.
"Deal," Vinny says.
"Can we work together like that?" Morgan asks. "Like, if it's something one of us can provide better than a store, can we hire them to do it?"
"Sure," Max says. "But I'm still willing to provide transportation and security if you want to go shopping for it."
"Sounds good to me, is everyone agreed?" she asks the crowd. Their agreement is a bit surprising to Max, actually. The biggest part of his offer was to get them off campus. "Oh, but you have to give your help for free," Morgan tells him.
"What?" he asks blankly.
"I think she's right," Zoe says cheerfully. "This is your gift to the school, right, Max? So you should be willing to put more than your money on the line. I think," she goes on, evilly, "since Ace and Jack are your helpers, they have to help for free, too--within reason. You have to do as much of it as you can on your own, guys, and then ask them for help."
"That's all well and good--but Zoe," Max says, whispering as he gets closer, "I have absolutely no artistic abilities. Whatsoever."
The entire group suddenly starts grinning evilly. "I didn't whisper that quietly enough, did I," he says as he looks at them. They all shake their heads, still grinning.
"Not at all," Ace says.
"Okay, well," Max says, running a hand over his face as his mind whirls. "Everyone that thinks they need to go out to shop, move here," he says, pointing to his left. "Those of you that have an idea of what you want to make, move here," he goes on, motioning in front of him, "and those of you that have no freaking clue what you want to do, go here," he says, waving his hand to his right. More than half of the group move there. No one moves to the shopping spot. "Okay, then. Jack, you're going to help those that have an idea, Ace, you get the ones without a clue," Max says.
"And what are you going to do?" Jack demands.
"I will... be here for when someone has an idea that they think I can help with," Max says, jumping into the air and lounging there, intent on taking a nap. Before he can even close his eyes, though, Carla tugs him down by his shirt. "Whoa--" he says, barely catching his balance. "What--"
"I need you," she says seriously. "Come on, okay?" She grabs his wrist and hauls him towards the dorm building, far away from the others. She closes the door behind them when they go in, and then searches the room for a second before letting out a breath. "I need help," she declares dramatically. "And money--but cash won't work, right, because it's online!"
"You want to buy music for Emily, right?"
"Yeah!" she says. "But I don't know ANYTHING about Ska--it sounded weird to me, so how do you know the good stuff from the bad when it all sounds strange? And how am I going to deliver it to her phone without her knowing?"
"Technico phone," he reminds her. "It's all connected to the main base--all of the music anyone brings in can be accessed by anyone that wants it, as long as they have one of our phones. But I can help you pick the music! You've got a computer, right?" he asks.
"Um, no... but Morgan does!"
"Then go ask Morgan if you can use it--" she's gone and back before he can finish the sentence. Soon he's got her watching a short documentary on Amazon about the history of Ska. She seems bored at first, but then--
"Bob Marley! Max, Max, look--Bob Marley was Ska!" she jumps to her feet and points. "I never knew!"
He hadn't either, he thinks a bit dryly, but just grins. "So you've got an idea, now?"
"Yeah!" she says, going back to the video.
"Tell me when you need money," he says as the door opens and Ward comes in, holding his envelope in one hand.
"I need your help," Ward says. He follows along, soon dragged from one job to the next, until before he knows it, his phone dings.
"Crap," he says, pulling it out and heading for the gym. He gets on the loudspeaker, tapping on it twice before going, "It is now time to exchange gifts, everyone, so if you'll meet in the gym, we'll get started. If you haven't finished your gift, well, you can explain what you plan to the person you're giving it to."
He heads down the stairs, watching as everyone comes in. "How'd it go?" he asks them. They seem pretty happy, although most of them are trying to hide their gifts behind their backs and failing. "Oh, wait, Carla, I forgot entirely--"
"I figured something out," Carla says, holding up her phone.
"I'll go first, then," Vinny says, "since there's no hope of hiding this sucker--Jack, this is for you,"
he says, holding out a painting.
"You told him to give me something avant-garde," Jack says, staring at Max. Max gives him a shameless grin.
"I was hoping it might culture you," Max says evilly, walking over to see what he got. He stares, his jaw dropping at the picture. "You painted a picture of him?" he demands of Ace, motioning to the highly stylized picture of Jack. "That's just going to go to his head!"
"It's AWESOME!" Jack says, bringing it up to look, finally. "Wow, man, this is going over my bed!"
The sound of upbeat music makes Max look over, watching as Carla and Emily dance together. All of a sudden everyone is giving and getting, which almost makes up for Jack actually LIKING his gift. (He'd really hoped to irritate the guy, okay? It was going to be the best part!)
He gives up, grinning as Zoe walks over and tugs his arm over her shoulders. "You made them very happy," she praises him, kissing him on the cheek.
"What did you get?" he asks her.
"I don't think I should tell--it'll go to your head," she says teasingly before pulling out a painting.
"Wow, that IS awesome," he says, admiring the painting of him. "You aren't that attached to it--"
"Nuh uh, this is mine," she says, running away with it.
"But I didn't get anything!" he says, chasing after her. "Come on, Zoe! We can share it--you can have it on weekends!"
"NEVER!"
Advent Calendar - Day Nine
"Okay, I should be able to afford it," Aubrey says, closing her bank account website. She pulls back from her desk, taking a deep breath and letting it out slowly. “Mom?” she says, not bothering to yell.
Liz appears in the room behind her in a flash. “So have you decided to make me your helper?” she asks, excitedly. “I was SURE that Emily would, but then she brought in Dad, which is cheating, right? That’s absolutely cheating. ANYTHING that involves Dad is cheating.”
“You don’t mind, do you?” Aubrey asks, looking up at her with a little smile. “It means you’re going to have to wear either a hat or the wig, again,” she warns.