Julian balked. “Yes. Of course, what else would I have?”
Hannah shrugged. When the bell rang, Julian thought he was free—only to feel Hannah grab his hand and lean down. She kissed his cheek before she whispered, “Take your time. I only hope you’re my Secret Santa at the end.”
“Yeah,” Julian said. His cheek burned from where her lips had touched. “Sure.”
Chapter Seven
AT THE lunch table, when the idea of a Secret Santa party was brought up again, Maria leaned in with interest.
“I like this,” she stated with a wry smile. “You come up with this, Hannah?”
“Nah, all Julia over here. I was just around. A muse, I suppose.”
Maria turned to Julian with another look that made his skin feel hot. “Well, good job, J. Is everyone else good with this?”
Most people nodded. Maria, as the semi–appointed leader of their small group, was really the only seal of approval everyone needed. Kent was too busy eating, trying to bulk up for basketball practice. Davis was also consumed with eating. He wasn’t as built as Kent but could have easily passed for a basketball or football player. When Julian had first noted his red eyes and sometimes stunted or slurred way of talking, he understood Davis’s near constant need for snacks through another lens.
“So no objections,” Maria stated with a sway of her brown hair. “Good.”
“See, I knew Julia was smart. I knew there was a reason we kept her around.”
“Other than her good looks and charms?” Maria asked.
“Yeah,” Hannah said. “Naturally.”
“Now all we need is someone to teach you football or fighting and you’re the whole package,” Davis added.
A small burst of laughter erupted. Julian tried not to let the words affect him. Even though he liked his social group, he had still been one of the last people to join them—which meant they still liked to tease him as if he was a younger sibling. Since Julian was an only child, it took him a lot longer than most to realize that most of their jabs were good-natured and they really did like having him around.
Across the table, Josie raised her eyes to his. She nodded at Julian, who understood her small mannerisms now as if it was a second language. Everyone liked the Secret Santa plan. Anything that kept all of them amused and together for the holiday season was going to be a winning idea, hands down.
“Can couples do this?” Kent asked.
“Ugh,” Maria said. “No couples. I am so sick of couples happening.”
“But isn’t that the entire point of the ‘Twelve Days of Christmas’ song?” Kent asked. He sang, dropping his already deep voice into a low bass. “‘On the first day of Christmas my true love gave to me.’ See? True love. This is about being a couple.”
Maria rolled her eyes. “No. I beg to disagree.”
“It’s better if things are done in a three-way,” Julian added, then immediately clapped his hand over his mouth, realizing what he had said aloud.
“Oh?” Maria’s eyebrows lifted, and she laughed a little. “What exactly do you mean, oh wise Julia?”
“Ugh,” Julian groaned. “I mean…. Well, we want the gift exchange to last more than one day, right?”
“But with a party at the end,” Hannah added. “I feel like there should be a party at the end. Maybe when school’s done?”
Maria nodded, and the rest of the table murmured. Julian picked up right where he left off. “Well, okay. So we have something to lead up to. But while we’re in school, if we keep exchanging gifts with one another, then we can really make the Christmas celebration last twelve days. Only, if we only have one Secret Santa that we’re buying for, it’s not as much fun. You can figure out who has you easily, and then, if we’re planning on more than one day with our present exchanges, then it just becomes boring. Twelve days of the same person? No thanks. But if three people do it, there is enough variety to keep the gifts and the gift shopping interesting. Make sense?”
“So we’re all going to trade off in three-ways?” Kent asked, his brow furrowed.
Julian leaned back and counted how many of them they were. Maria did the same thing. With Maria, himself, Hannah, Davis, and Kent, that made—
“Only five,” Maria said. “That’s not going to work.”
“Hey,” Josie said. She tugged on Maria’s cardigan and narrowed her eyes. “I’m here, you know. I don’t just do your math homework for shits and giggles.”
Maria laughed. “Okay, okay, we have six. So we each have three people to buy for—two during the twelve days leading up to things, and then one present on the actual, final party day?”
Again, most people nodded.
“Great,” Maria said. “Now, when should we start trading names?”
“Does it matter?” Davis asked.
“Yes, of course! We need to be organized in order for this to be pulled off.”
Davis still squinted his eyes, somewhat confused. Josie sighed and leaned close to Davis to explain the rest of the exchange. Math had never been anyone’s strong suit at the table, so Josie’s limited ability to break down really quick multiplication tables seemed near genius.
“If each of us buys three presents each, that’s three gifts times six of us—eighteen presents in total. But we’re all going to exchange the final present during a party, so eighteen gifts take away six for the party makes twelve presents before school is over. As each day passes, one of us will reveal who we have for Secret Santa, they’ll get their present, and time will go on until—bam. We’ve rewritten the entire ‘Twelve Days of Christmas’ song ourselves, only without so many birds.”
“Huh” was all Davis said. “I guess that works.”
Josie shrugged with a slight roll to her eyes. “Well, it makes sense to me.”
“Me too,” a few more murmured from around the table. Julian nodded, though he sometimes marveled at how quickly Josie could figure out what he meant. Maria beamed at everyone again, her brown eyes wide.
“Sounds good. Now how does that song go again?”
“The twelve days?”
“What else?”
Everyone hummed for a moment—but of course, Kent broke into the round chorus of five golden rings first.
“Hmmm. Right. I like the turtledoves,” Maria said, then raised her eyes to Julian. “Very romantic.”
“You realize that by the end of that song, that poor woman would have been given something like one hundred and eighty-four birds, right?” Josie stated.
Maria shrugged. “Still romantic.”
“You could be the bird woman,” Josie laughed.
“Better than a cat lady. And trust me, I won’t end up alone.”
“You seem fairly sure about that. If you start keeping birds, you may not have a choice.”
“Whatever,” Maria said. “I like birds, especially doves. I think they’re sweet. They’re sometimes released at weddings, you know? It’s appropriate.”
Julian shifted in his seat. “They don’t really mean romantic love, though. Doves, I mean.”
“There’s more than one type of love?” Maria questioned. “And what do they mean, then?”
Julian didn’t quite know how to answer Maria’s questions—whether to focus on love or birds—so he merely drew a deep breath and tried to speak slowly without lifting his eyes from the table. “The birds are more about connection than anything else. Think of the homing pigeons people used to use—they needed to connect someone to someone else. They fly away and come back to the source. It’s more about a sense of purpose, rather than a profound romance.”
“Explain yourself,” Maria said. “Where’s your source?”
“Do you remember that Christmas movie? Home Alone 2?”
“Ugh,” Davis groaned. “That was not a Christmas film. That was Macaulay Culkin being weird for an hour.”
“He is so creepy-looking now,” Hannah stated. “Have you seen him? He has no eyebrows and no expression. He looks like one of those hairless c
ats.”
“Anyway,” Maria said, clacking her nails down on the table. “You were saying, Julia?”
“Well, in that movie, there were turtledoves, remember? The young boy exchanges them with a homeless woman. It’s more of a sign of friendship than anything else.”
“Aren’t doves supposed to be God?” Josie asked.
“No one is supposed to be God,” Kent added. “You can’t, like, make his image. It’s blasphemy. Or something.”
Maria narrowed her eyes at him.
“What?” Kent asked. “You can’t be mad that I’m getting it wrong when I thought you hated how religion treated women.”
“I know, I know,” Maria said, shrugging slightly. “I don’t want to feel guilty for having fun, especially if everyone around is consenting.” She smiled and waggled her eyebrows.
Maria, like most people in her family, was raised Catholic. Kent was something similar but not quite the same denomination as what Maria was, while Julian wasn’t really raised anything at all.
“What if we don’t even celebrate Christmas?” Kent asked suddenly. “Can we do the Secret Santa exchange?”
“Yeah, of course! Christmas has nothing to do with religion now anyway,” Maria said.
“All right. What does it have to do with, then?” Kent asked.
“Money,” she said with a sway of her body. “It’s what makes the world go around now, dahling.”
“And if we don’t have money?” Davis asked. “Right, how the hell are we paying for these presents? And we’re giving three things to three people? I have no idea what’s going on, man.”
“We’re not going to get expensive presents. But something, you know. Doesn’t have to be big. We can discuss that more after we’ve handed out the names first!”
The table murmured for a while. Josie leaned over to explain the gift giving to Davis again and then gave up and started to write down a schedule, using numbers instead of names. Maria cleared her throat when Josie drew another sheet of paper from her binder and began to divide up who was participating so they could draw.
“Anyone have a hat we can pick these out of?” Josie asked.
Davis tossed her his baseball cap—which Maria intercepted. “Not here. We should meet up after school.”
“Again?” Davis groaned. “For this?”
“Yes,” Maria said. “I think I’d rather seal our deal in a more private place. With a kiss, perhaps.”
Julian sighed, and the rest of the group rolled their eyes.
“But I have practice,” Kent said.
Maria gave him a look. “Since when do you need to go to practice? I thought that’s what this morning’s hustle was all about?”
Kent shrugged. “Fine. I’ll skip it. I’m already doing better than most of my teammates anyway.”
“That’s the attitude. And you, Julia?”
Julian looked down at his hands and then over to Josie. Her nose was buried in her notebook, still working out a schedule.
“I don’t know if I can. My mom has some exams she needs to do, so I have to help with chores….”
“Bullshit,” Maria said. “I can see through you. And I need you to come, Julia. Who else is going to tell me that story about doves? Or were you done explaining their symbolism?”
Maria’s smile was warm and made Julian’s heart skip again. He clenched his hands over his knees under the table. “Um. Yeah. I think I was done. Doves or birds like it are really a sign of friendship, mostly. A sign of peace and sometimes God.”
“Hmmm,” Maria said. “In that case, I think it’s probably best we don’t read too much into symbols. Especially when the people before us decided what they all meant. What if I wanted my turtledove to mean something else? What’s stopping me?”
Julian shrugged. He noticed that Kent and Davis were watching him, almost evaluating him as he allowed Maria to string him along. It was no secret among them that Maria was into both guys and girls, though he thought Kent still doubted it. It was hard for him to wrap his head around the idea that someone could be into both, like it was a difficult math equation and he had not yet learned the formula.
“Yeah,” Julian answered. “I suppose turtledoves could be whatever you wanted, so long as the other person knew what it meant too.”
“I like that, then. It works.” Maria gave him another smile—a genuine one this time around. It didn’t make Julian feel as scared as it once had.
“Now I know what to get you,” Davis said with a small snicker.
“You don’t even know if you have me yet,” Maria snapped.
Davis looked down at his half-finished sandwich and shrugged. “Whatever. I’ll be there after school, though, easily.”
“Good!” Maria looked back at Julian after she got Hannah’s approval too. “You’re definitely coming to this. I will not take no for an answer.”
“You won’t?”
“Nope,” she stated as if it were obvious. The lunchroom chatter began to grow as time ran out, and Maria became more impatient. “Come on, Julia. You’re a lot of fun. You have it hidden deep inside your quiet exterior, but I know it’s there.”
Julian laughed, somewhat bitterly. “How can you be so sure?”
“What’s that saying?” Maria trailed off as she struggled to find it. “Still waters run deep? Keep your friends close… and those who you want to lay closer?”
“I don’t think that’s quite right,” Kent said.
Maria smiled. “You know what I mean, right, Julia? Just come. It will be fun.”
In spite of the nagging feeling Julian got when his name was said wrong, he knew they were his friends. They weren’t deliberately trying to hurt him; they just didn’t know any better. And how could they know any better unless he told them? He wanted to tell them, he really did. Maybe it would make the whole gift exchange easier in some way if the truth eventually got out.
Besides, this whole party thing was his idea. He had to go. No excuses.
“Of course,” Julian said, just as the lunch bell rang. “Yeah, I wouldn’t miss it for the world.”
Chapter Eight
“MY MOM is really cool,” Maria said as she opened the hotel doors and wandered away from the front desk, down a long hallway, with everyone following behind her in a line. “I know that’s rare, but it’s true this time. When Markus and I were kids and she couldn’t find baby sitters, she’d take us to her hotels and we’d hang out while she cleaned. Now I kinda dig the conference rooms. More privacy, you know?”
“She just lets you hang out in the conference room?” Julian asked. “Does she ever get caught?”
“The trick is to pretend that you just woke up there or wandered away from your family and got lost. It’s a lot easier when you’re girls. My brother Markus used to have such a hard time lying, so I guess that’s why he’s on his own now.”
Maria shrugged, not diving much deeper into Markus’s history. Julian had only been able to piece together Maria’s vague references to him in the military and what Josie told him in hushed whispers, and even then she didn’t let out much information.
“Wait. Where is—” Davis started to ask, only getting so far before Josie turned to him so fast her curls bounced as she shook her head no. No, don’t ask. Davis shoved his large, meaty hands into his pockets.
“During the holidays, it’s easy enough to do,” Maria said, continuing on from before as if nothing had happened. “There are so many families with kids running around and usually so many businesses meeting during the day that everyone loses track of the conference rooms. Just follow my lead, okay? And maybe we’ll get some free food out of this too.”
THE CONFERENCE room was hidden at the back of the hotel, nestled next to the gym and pool area. Both looked run-down and hardly used in the mid-December weather. The room had a long oak table at one end with a projector that was still turned on and warm, but clearly hadn’t been used since the morning. There were odds and ends of sandwiches and a fruit plate that Maria h
elped herself to. Julian skipped over some of the candies and cookies at the side and then went with a tuna sandwich. He put it back when it smelled odd, only to watch Davis pick it up again.
“Isn’t this kind of bad?” he asked. “I mean, this is stealing, isn’t it?”
“No,” Maria said. “I don’t believe in that.”
“Is it really a matter of belief?” Kent challenged.
Maria rolled her eyes. “My mom works hard cleaning these hotels. She gets paid shit. So she has to make her fun wherever she can. This is one of the ways.”
Maria wheeled up the chair to the front of the table and then plopped down on it. She nibbled on a few pieces of food before folding her hands over her legs like an arch villain in a movie. “Now, now, what do we have here?” she said in a strained and comical voice.
“This feels like a meeting of a secret society.”
“It is not a secret,” Maria stated, “if we are not ashamed to tell.”
Josie sighed, loud and irritated, and took out a notebook. Maria tossed a grape at her, making Josie squeal like a small child as she dove out of the way. She placed her notebook on the table and wrote down everyone’s names.
“We should get organized, right? I’ll tear off the names, and then we can draw for them.”
“Sounds like a plan.”
Davis finally moved from the food table to take a seat, Hannah and Josie sitting on the opposite side from Kent and Davis. Julian was still searching for a better meal. When he found the coffee machine, he made himself a cup, took a sip, and then added sugar. When he sat down, it was at the other end of the table, facing Maria. She smiled at him.
“You got some coffee for that sugar?”
“Yes,” Julian said. He took a sip. “I’m good.”
Josie held up a hand.
“Oh God,” Maria groaned. “We’re not in class. What’s your question, dear cousin?”
“I need a hat to draw the names from.”
Maria’s gaze fell on Davis, who pulled off his baseball cap and slid it across the table. Their names were all added three times, and then the drawing began.
The Santa Hoax Page 6
