by R. J. Ross
"It can't be power related for us," Bobby says, sitting on Alyssa's beanbag and playing a game on her wall with his phone. "You might not have noticed, but healers are NOT the showmen in the super world," he tells them.
"We NOTICED," the rest of the room say in exasperation.
"Well, except for me," Kirsten says cheerfully. "I can totally pull something off that'll have Justin--"
"Leave Justin out of this, for the love of GOD," Alyssa says, only to stop, her expression stunned. "That's it!"
"What's it?" the room asks. Bobby even gets killed--well, his game character does.
"My day is on Sunday, right?" Alyssa says. "So what's more Christmas than forcing everyone to dress up and go to Church? I need to go see Banshee--wait, um--they said America's Son is a pastor, right? I need to talk to him, or maybe his music director--"
"Jeanie!" Aubrey says. "Call up Star Spangled, she's the one you want. She'd LOVE to help with that, I'm sure."
"Why a music director?" Bobby asks blankly.
"Haven't you HEARD Alyssa in the shower? Everyone else in the building has," Kirsten says, rolling her eyes. "Boys," she complains.
"I can't do it--you call her and then introduce us, okay?" Alyssa says, shoving her phone at Aubrey. "No, wait, I mean, this is STAR SPANGLED--she's probably way too busy--"
"Hi, Jeanie! Can we ask you a favor?" Aubrey says.
***
*Now*
"Okay, okay, I KNOW it's early," Alyssa says, her arms crossed over her chest. She's bundled up in a thick white coat, which hides her dress from the group. The rest of the group are (reluctantly) dressed up in the clothing Adanna's mother got them. Even Freddy is tugging on the bright green tie he's wearing with his charcoal gray suit. Suits and dresses are everywhere, much to the group's general irritation.
"Do we HAVE to dress up like this?" Ward mutters, tugging at his own tie.
"Boy, you get that tail on the bus this instant!" Alyssa says, pointing. "This is CHRISTMAS! And we will NOT forget the reason for the season! That's why we dress up--it's a show of respect!" She sounds EXACTLY like her mother, she thinks with inward amusement.
"What happens if I accidentally outgrow my suit, huh?" he asks.
"Then you go naked," she tells him, not even blinking at the threat, "and you best remember that we're being filmed--the entire super world will see your skinny white backside sitting in church," she declares threateningly. He turns bright red and boards the bus, shooting her one last dark look out the window.
Once everyone is onboard, even the non-dorm kids and the adults from the dorms (other than Ken and Jeanie), she heads onto the bus, herself. She absently notes that the only one that looks comfortable in his suit and tie is Max. Even Trent is squirming a bit. "We have been kindly invited to join Pastor Ken's church for the morning," she tells them. "You will behave, no running around--"
"But--but--" Carla says, squirming and waving her hand. "What if we have to go potty during church?" she asks.
"Then you tell one of the adults, discreetly leave the room and come right back after you're done," Alyssa says, trying not to roll her eyes. Making Carla sit still for anything is a pain, just ask her teachers. "No running," she repeats firmly.
"We got it," Freddy says, "right, everyone?"
Everyone agrees and Alyssa sits down in the front next to Banshee, taking a deep breath. Of course she's nervous--she's going to sing in front of everyone, including a professional singer. Sure she's never been a Justin fan, but he's STILL paid to do what she's about to do, right? Is it too late to back out? She'd actually just asked to do a solo, but she'd somehow fallen into something WAY bigger--but she sort of expected it, since it's so close to Christmas...
She pulls out her phone, almost calling Jeanie. She manages to stop herself just in time. She's been practicing with Jeanie AND Banshee for a week. (She'd asked, Banshee called it extra credit instead of helping with her advent day.)
They pull to a stop in front of a tiny building--a part of a strip mall. As a group they get off, heading into the church. Alyssa heads straight for Jeanie, who drags her into a hug so tight that she has to squirm to try and get her breath back. "This is going to be perfect," Jeanie tells her silently. Alyssa nods, pulling back and turning to face the group that's gathered behind them.
"Everyone, this is my helper, Jeanie," she says as Jeanie takes her hand. "We didn't know each other before this, so it's a really big thing that she's going so far to help me," she adds.
"I LOVED every minute of it!" Jeanie says, giving her a brilliant grin. "You're all in for such a treat! Alyssa--"
"I haven't told them about that part," Alyssa whispers.
"Oh! Well, you're in for SUCH a treat!" Jeanie repeats, practically bouncing with excitement. "Let's go on in!" she says, clapping her hands and leading the group into the church. Inside, the place is decorated to the hilt, complete with a massive nativity scene to the side and poinsettias covering the steps of the alter. The podium is gone, though, and the choir are already in place--save for a chair to the side. Alyssa motions the group to sit down and takes her coat off, revealing her long white dress. It's probably the prettiest thing she's ever owned, and it was a gift from Jeanie. "You look so beautiful!" Jeanie says, hugging her again. "I knew that would suit you."
Alyssa feels a blush crossing her cheeks, and glances into the audience. There, right in the front row, is her entire family. Her mama is ALREADY crying, she realizes. Her face gets redder. "Thank you," she says shyly.
"No, sweetie, thank YOU," Jeanie says before heading to her place to the side. Alyssa sits down and Ken gets up, standing in front of the choir and tugging on his tie.
"Welcome, everyone, to our Christmas Cantata!" Ken says. "For those of you that haven't experienced a Cantata, well, I think you're going to enjoy it." She feels twenty-five sets of eyes turn and stare at her, expectantly. Nico, though, doesn't look surprised. He's sitting behind the kids, undoing his tie and staring at it like it's a noose. Summer discreetly elbows him in the side. Taurus and Liz have found a list of singers, and she can see them pointing out what is probably her name.
The piano starts. Alyssa stands and closes her eyes, taking in a deep breath and trying to calm herself. And then, to most of the group's surprise, she starts to sing. Her voice echoes through the small building, smooth and clear as a bell. This isn't a super power. It won't show up in any of Nico's scans, it won't shatter glass or put crowds to sleep (well, it PROBABLY won't,) but it is a gift, one that she's never used in public before. A part of her is terrified that she's wrong about her singing--that she's only imagining that she's on key. She can't even see the audience now, because the lights are aimed at the choir.
Maybe she should have done something else, she thinks as the choir does their song. She has another solo up next, but if she fakes a cough, she can have Jeanie do it, like was originally planned--yeah, even SHE sees the stupidity of a healer faking a cough, she realizes a second later. She just has to brave it out, she decides as her next song starts. And as soon as she starts singing, she stops worrying. This is one of her favorite songs of the Cantata--Mary, Did You Know. It's beautiful, and she feels a little tear escape, but ignores it.
The rest of the Cantata rushes past. She grabs the bottle of water Jeanie placed by her chair and takes a sip before looking to the crowd as the final choir song wraps up. Her classmates look stunned. Justin, to her shock, is the first to react. He starts clapping enthusiastically. Soon the others are cheering and standing. Some even whistle. A part of her wants to lecture them on proper behavior in church, but the rest of her is too stunned by their honest enthusiasm.
Her mama looks like she's going to come forward, but there's a rush from her classmates that get there first. "Why didn't you TELL us you could sing?" Carla demands. "We could have made you do concerts, too!"
"That was amazing!" Justin says. "You've got some serious skill there!"
She blinks as Aubrey shoves her way through the crowd and hauls
her into a hug. "It was beautiful," Aubrey tells her. "I'm so proud of you!"
A silly little grin crosses Alyssa's face as she pulls out of Aubrey's arms. "And what's a Cantata without a huge Christmas dinner afterwards?" she asks the crowd. "Jeanie says the church is having a Christmas potluck, and we're welcome to stay--if you guys want to, that is."
"YEAH!" the kids say.
Jeanie steps in, leading them away, and Alyssa looks up as her parents and brother approach. For a moment there's an awkward silence, the things of their past lingering in the air--and then her mama steps forward, hauling her into a hug.
"That was just beautiful," her mama says, sobbing. "You sounded wonderful!" Almost unconsciously, Alyssa hugs her, touching the back of her neck just to make sure. Nothing, she thinks happily. No sickness, nothing off. Her mama is perfectly healthy. When she pulls away, Alyssa looks at her dad.
"Dad?" she says, only to yelp as he hauls her into a hug. She leans her head against his chest and discreetly reaches down to touch his hand. He's fine, too, she thinks with a hint of amusement. Before this, she'd been terrified of touching people, now she's sneaking touches.
"You, uh, did good," her brother says, barely looking at her. "Should we go eat?" he asks their parents.
"Let's go eat!" her dad says, tugging her along behind him.
Now, she thinks, it really does feel like Christmas.
Advent Calendar - Day Fourteen
"This is Sunny's day, right?" Trent asks Zoe as they head down the steps of the campus, looking around. "What's he going to do? I offered to help--"
"He took Mom," Zoe says, shrugging. "He can only have one adult helper, remember? I think they barred off the back half of the canyon." She looks around, seeing most of the school coming out of the dorms and heading for them. "What's up, guys?" she asks.
"We don't know," Morgan says, "we were going to ask you."
"I can go find out!" Carla volunteers.
"We'll all go find out," Zoe says, heading past the school with the rest of the group following her. They stop as they get to the other side of the canyon, staring in wonder at the massive... building? Can you call that a building? Zoe stares at it for a long moment. It's a wall of trees and vines, effectively mimicking a building. The trees seem to be protecting whatever's inside, because the branches gently bend so they form a roof.
Flowers shoot out of the ground, forming two lines to show a path. "Wow," Max says, stepping up behind her. Zoe jerks, looking at him in surprise. "This is what you get when you put two elementalists together," he says in an admiring tone.
"Well come on, everyone," Zoe says instead of replying, "they've rolled out the red carpet, it'd be rude not to go in," she says, heading down the path. "But don't step on the flowers," she adds over her shoulder. Mentally she's plotting out the greenhouse schematics, because winter is going to shock the crap out of all these poor plants. It'll have to be HUGE.
The world inside the trees is green, lush, and TOWERING over even the tallest of the kids. A huge plant twitches as they walk past it, and they stop, watching as the leaves open. Sunny is sound asleep at the heart of the plant, wearing his green and brown uniform.
"Sunny," Zoe says as the group crowds around. "Sunny WAKE UP!"
Sunny jerks awake, looking stunned for a second before giving them a sheepish grin. "It was just so warm and peaceful," he says as an excuse. "Gimme a second, I have some lines... Hello, ladies and gentlemen," he says, lowering his voice and rolling over on the leaf so he's looking at them upside down. "Welcome to the garden."
The leaf holding him slowly raises him up to his feet and he turns, stepping onto it with a graceful bow to the audience. "We have a few rules in the garden," he says, "any time you see a red flower," he waves a hand and a red flower blossoms on the ground in front of them, "you must give something to someone on your left--compliments do count. Any time you see a blue flower," a blue flower blossoms to the right, "you must sing the teapot song!"
"The teapot song," Max says dryly.
Sunny gives him a brilliant smile. "The teapot song!" he agrees. "And any time you see a white flower--"
"We have to do a dance?" Max offers with a hint of incredulousness.
"No, that's where you'll find a treat, so search very carefully." The plant closes up, hiding Sunny from them again.
Jack walks up to the plant, knocking on the leaf twice. It opens slowly--but Sunny is gone. "Huh," he says. "Looks like we follow the path," he says to the others. "Unless someone wants to go up and see what the end is?"
"That's cheating," Zoe says. "No cheating on my brother's day, got it?"
"Okay, okay," Jack grumbles. "Lead on."
They slowly start walking through the massive garden, staring in wonder at the various plants. "Hey, hey, those are grapes!" Carla says, pointing to a wall covered with bunches of grapes. She heads for it, grabbing one. "They're HUGE!" she says, showing it to the others. It's large enough to almost cover her palm. They all grab a few of them (or a bunch, in the Liberty boys' cases) and move on, munching on grapes as they enjoy the trip.
"White flower!" Vinny says, pointing. The group spread out, searching the plants. Malina is the one to find it.
"It's a little flower ornament," she says, holding up a tiny Christmas tree ornament. It's a beautiful white orchid, with glitter decorating the miniature leaves.
"Found one!" Carla says. "And another, and another, and--"
"Let us find our own, Carla," Morgan says with a laugh. Carla looks around, now bored that her game is taken away, and the others start searching for the flower ornament.
"It's a flower," Jack says, holding his up. "No offense, but it's not exactly my idea of a treat."
"Eat your grapes, Jack," Aubrey says, patting him on the shoulder to soften the rebuke. "Those can be your treat."
"They are pretty good," he admits as he shoves another into his mouth.
No one notices the little smile on Adanna's face as she looks at the ornament. She blushes slightly before tucking the ornament into her pocket. "Red flower," she says, distracting the group. Everyone stumbles over themselves trying to figure out a good compliment at the drop of a hat. It's so awkward that a few of them start laughing.
They move on, only to have several groan at the sight of a blue flower blossoming among the others. Several people yell, "You have to do the MOTIONS!" at each other as the teapot song echoes through the garden. By the time it's over, all of them are laughing. They head through the massive garden, yelling out when they find one of the specific flowers--and at every white flower they find another little Christmas ornament. It's not long before they realize something.
"A metal surfboard, a flower, a crystal raindrop," Vinny says holding up each of the ornaments. "He's got one for each of us," he adds, holding up a tiny fireplace ornament. "This one would be mine."
"Mine are tennis shoes!" Carla says, holding up the sparkly, colorful tennis shoe ornament.
"But we've already decorated the tree," Trent says as they search for--and find his logo as an ornament. A little grin pulls at his lips as he holds it up.
"You have, but you haven't decorated your own." They all look up as they come into a clearing. Summer is sitting on a gigantic bush decorated with Christmas lights. Sunny stands next to it, grinning widely and motioning to the area in front of them.
"We decided you should all get your own," he explains. Lines of foot tall Christmas trees with their roots wrapped up in brown material line the ground. "They'll be fine with a bit of caretaking through Christmas, and when it starts warming up, we'll plant them," he explains. "Oh, and we're going to turn this into a greenhouse," he adds, motioning around. "Mom talked Dad into fixing up a special cold weather protection system. So now I'll have someplace to sleep when it's snowing! We can hang some hammocks for you guys, if you want."
The group laughs as they head out, picking out their own tree and picking them up. "Will we plant them here?" Zoe asks.
"Nah, these are good
for all weather. We'll start a little evergreen forest not far from here. When you move out, come get me or Mom and we'll help you take your tree to your new place," Sunny says, grinning. "Now, if you'd put your trees to the sides," he instructs them, turning and grabbing a huge armful of blankets, "we're going to have a picnic!"
They quickly move their trees and help put the blankets down. Soon food is being passed out and the group is digging in. Only Adanna isn't eating yet, she's sitting to the side with the little orchid ornament in her hand. Sunny drops down next to her with his plate in his hands. "You noticed, huh?" he asks her with a shy little grin.
"How could I not?" she asks, only to lean over and kiss him on the cheek. "Thank you," she says, pulling out the little black cat ornament. "I'll put them side by side."
Advent Calendar - Day Fifteen
Malina stares at her phone, trying to figure out who in the world she should call. It's a simple idea, really, but she's going to need money to do it... but everyone knows that calling Mastermental costs the promise of being on his team, right? Or at least owing him a really big favor, like Brandon does.
She doesn't want to stay in the Midwest! There's not nearly enough water around here. South is okay, there are a few beaches there, right? But practically half of her sibling group is already lined up to go there--they won't NEED her all the time--maybe during the hurricane season, or something, she'd have to negotiate that one. But for the rest of the time, there's the choice of East, West, or North. But she's only MET Negatia. She's never met Marigold! And how can she know who she wants to work for, if she hasn't met both of them? (And North--well, it's COLD! Not that cold really bothers her, but if she splashes norms accidentally in a fight, she doesn't want them catching pneumonia!)
There's one way to meet Marigold, she thinks as she looks at the name on her contact list. But calling her now is as good as promising her future, right?
"What's up?" Justin asks, almost making her jump. She looks up, watching as he pulls himself onto the platform of the tree house next to her hammock. "Tomorrow's your day, right?"
